Chemical demand increases

U.S. chemical shipments increased in January from both the prior month and the comparable month in 2005, according to seasonally adjusted data from the Commerce Department. The government numbers show shipments of all chemicals increasing 2.4% from December and 5.5% from January of last year. Meanwhile, demand for chemicals, excluding pharmaceuticals, rose 2.6% from the previous month and 8.3% from January a year earlier. The inventories-to-shipments ratio for all chemicals in January was 1.18, down slightly from 1.19 in December and from 1.20 in the same month in 2005.