PwC's latest chemicals investment attractiveness rankings put China, the US, and Taiwan at the top. Europe doesn't feature.

That's not a ranking problem. It's a readout of three structural failures happening simultaneously: energy cost, policy predictability, and supply security. The Cefic data tells the rest of the story — confirmed chemical CAPEX in Europe down 81% since 2022, closures up sixfold, 37 Mt of capacity exiting. The investment signal is clear.

Europe has world-class clusters, Antwerp, Rotterdam and Rhine-Ruhr to name a few. The infrastructure, the logistics, the downstream integration, it's all there. What's missing is the foundation those clusters need to remain competitive. The Clean Industrial Deal has to deliver on energy affordability and permitting at the speed industry is moving in the wrong direction. Declarations don't stop FIDs from going elsewhere.

Worth reading.