COURTESY OF CHEVRON PHILLIPS

And the turnaround did expand in most chemical-producing countries. In the U.S., the most important chapter was the increase in prices, which, when combined with cost cutting, helped pull chemical company earnings sharply higher.

But there were other important trends. Production volumes increased in most countries. The laggards were mainly in European countries where national economies are not expanding as fast as those for other countries around the world.

Employment is still falling in many areas, but in the U.S., at least, this means that labor productivity is improving.

In the era of globalization, foreign trade has become an ever more important aspect of the chemical industry. Many of the countries saw their chemical exports expand in double-digit percentages in 2004. Often they were growing faster than imports, providing improvements in chemical trade balances.

Even though this year's Facts & Figures for the Chemical Industry reports the changes in chemical fortunes, the format in which that it is presented is little changed. But there is a huge change for readers who want to parse the numbers. This year, for the first time, all tables are available in a downloadable Excel format on C&EN's website.

The collection of industry data from the major chemical-producing countries and regions has been accomplished by Assistant Managing Editor Michael McCoy, Senior Correspondent Marc Reisch, and Associate Editor Alexander H. Tullo (all three in C&EN's Northeast News Bureau); Senior Correspondent Patricia L. Short (London); and Asia-Pacific Bureau Head Jean-François Tremblay (Hong Kong). The work was coordinated by Senior Correspondent William J. Storck (Northeast News Bureau) .

COVER STORY FINANCES: RISING PRICES ARE KEY AGAIN Cost curtailment and increased product prices spurred growth for most chemical companies (2 MB) EMPLOYMENT: ANOTHER DECLINE Data show continued contraction as companies seek to lower costs, become more efficient (476 KB) PRODUCTION: GROWTH IN MOST REGIONS Although output increased, rise was probably less than most nations had hoped (516 KB) TRADE: INCREASES WERE COMMON LAST YEAR Deficits were cut or surpluses grew in many countries; the U.S. deficit in chemicals neared zero (472 KB) *These documents have been saved as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file to retain the original formatting of the hard copy version. To view the documents you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader. Download a free copy now or obtain further information about Adobe Acrobat Reader.