German Chemicals Output Drops to 1995 Levels on Tariff Impact

Germany’s battered chemicals industry evoked a 1990s rap song to show just how badly it’s faring these days.

The sector’s third-quarter revenue declined as sales in North America slumped by a fifth due to pricing pressures and the impact of US tariffs, according to the VCI trade group. Production fell 4.3% over the prior-year period to a level roughly in line with that of 1995.

“We didn’t have internet back then, we had the D-Mark and the radio played Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise,” VCI managing director Wolfgang Große Entrup said Tuesday during a call with reporters. “Our alarms are sounding louder ...