McKinsey on Chemicals, Number 6

The chemical industry continues to ride high in capital markets. Our latest capital-markets update suggests that a number of the key value-driving trends remain in place.

The CEO of the Swiss specialty-chemical company has steered it back onto a growth path through restructuring and an aggressive continuous-improvement program.

The outlook for oil prices is highly unstable. To assure they have the agility to navigate this, chemical companies need to build new organizational capabilities.

The country’s upstream petrochemical and downstream specialties industries are expanding healthily. But a combination of moves will be needed to meet India’s fast-growing demand for petrochemical intermediates.

Crafting a strategic road map and responding rapidly to external shocks are critical for superior value creation in chemicals.

Increased rigor in managing smaller chemical projects can help capture significant untapped value.