OREANDA-NEWS. May 21, 2015. The market for chemical products is expected to grow to some 5.6 trillion euros by 2035, more than doubling its current size. But even though growth prospects are good, the industry's dynamism is set to wane: growing at an average annual pace of 4.1 percent now, the chemicals market will expand by just 3.6 percent per year between 2030 and 2035.

The European chemical industry will see itself especially hard hit, annual growth amounting to as little as 1.5 percent through 2035. Besides sluggish growth in the domestic markets, Europe's industry has other significant hurdles to clear, such as the high cost of raw materials and energy and increased costs resulting from the tightening of EU regulations, according to the latest Roland Berger study, "Chemicals 2035 – Gearing up for growth: How Europe's chemical industry can gain traction in a digitized world".

"Even though European chemical companies are highly productive and very innovative, the market has been consolidating for years, especially in Europe," explained Alexander Belderok, Partner at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. "Major topics like the growing digitization of industry and new customer demands are placing chemical concerns under ever-increasing pressure."