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Chief Economist Martha Moore of the American Chemistry Council joins Victoria Meyer to unpack the latest economic realities and policy challenges shaping the chemical industry. Martha shares insight from ACC’s member surveys, discusses key drivers behind current market trends, and covers what’s keeping executives awake at night—from rising raw material costs to global trade uncertainty.
This episode also covers the strategic importance of US manufacturing, the impact of legislation like TSCA, and how the industry is positioning for growth and innovation amid a shifting global landscape. Martha offers data-driven perspectives relevant to leaders needing to navigate volatility, build resilience, and influence both policy and boardrooms.
Victoria and Martha discuss the following:
- Martha’s path from a STEM-focused upbringing to Chief Economist at ACC.
- The three pillars driving chemical demand: consumer spending, business investment, and exports.
- The sharp rise in raw materials and logistics costs for chemical manufacturers.
- What ACC’s members and sentiment surveys reveal about today’s top business challenges.
- The effect of international trade policy, tariffs, and China’s rising influence on the industry.
- Why innovation and reshoring US manufacturing are vital for future growth.
- Leadership lessons for executives: focus on agility, long-term strategy, and building resilience.
Killer Quote: “Chemistry is foundational to our economy, and being able to communicate that message is one of the top things we do. I try to help people make the connection between chemistry and the experiences they’re having in their everyday lives.” —Martha Moore
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Creators and Guests
Host
Victoria King Meyer
Founder & Host of The Chemical Show + The Chemical Summit; Victoria brings 25+ years industry leadership experience including Shell and Clariant and a Victoria brings a practical, business-focused perspective to conversations about leadership, strategy, innovation, and the forces shaping the future of the chemical industry.to
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The Chemical Show is the #1 business podcast for the chemical industry, bringing you leadership insights, business strategies, industry trends, and real-world lessons from the executives shaping the business of chemicals.
Each week, host Victoria King Meyer sits down with leaders from across the chemical industry, from Fortune 50 companies to mid-sized businesses and innovative startups. You’ll hear how they’re navigating today’s challenges and opportunities, the experiences that shaped their leadership, and the insights you can apply to your own business and career.
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Victoria brings more than 25 years of chemical industry experience from companies including Shell, LyondellBasell, and Clariant. Today, she is an executive advisor and coach, founder of The Chemical Summit, and host of The Chemical Show.
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Victoria Meyer:
Welcome to The Chemical Show, the podcast where chemical means business. I'm your host, Victoria Meyer, bringing you stories and insights from leaders driving innovation and growth across the chemical industry. Each week we explore key trends, real-world challenges, and the strategies that make an impact. Let's get started. Welcome back to The Chemical Show, where leaders talk business. Today I have the opportunity to speak with Martha Moore, who is the chief economist for the American Chemistry Council. So Martha is deep into all the things that are going on across the chemical industry, particularly when we look at macroeconomics and just the numbers. And quite honestly, you guys are always asking me what's going on in the chemical industry and what are you seeing? And I am really hoping that Martha is going to help share some of that insight.
Victoria Meyer:
The other thing I want to bring out right away is Martha is also one of our keynote speakers at the Chemical Summit this year. We're super excited to have her. And so if you want more than this taster, and want to go more in depth with Martha, join us at the Chemical Summit on September 29th and 30th in Houston. So Martha, onto you. Let's just start where we start, which is your origin story. How did you get interested in economics and into the chemical industry?
Martha Moore:
Yeah, so I've always been interested in chemistry, and my dad was actually a biochemist at the National Institutes of Health. So I grew up in a very STEM-friendly household. There was lots of, you know, kitchen chemistry that happened in my childhood, and I actually was pursuing chemistry, or I wanted to pursue chemistry in college. And that didn't last very long. At the same time, I took an economics class at the recommendation of one of my mom's friends and just really fell in love with it, right? You know, it was seeing the world through the lens of supply and demand. And, you know, at the end of the day, economics is really about human behavior. So I found my way back to the chemical industry, and I actually consider myself incredibly fortunate to be able to sort of combine these 2 things that I've always really loved. So—
Victoria Meyer:
That's cool. And how long have you been with ACC?
Martha Moore:
Off and on now for probably the better part of 25 years.
Victoria Meyer:
Awesome.
Martha Moore:
Yeah.
Victoria Meyer:
That's really great.
Martha Moore:
All right.
Victoria Meyer:
So in fact, what does it actually mean? So chief economist, that sounds like a lofty thing. But what does it really mean to be chief economist with the American Chemistry Council? What is— what do you do? Yeah.
Martha Moore:
So I manage a team of 5, including myself, other economists, policy analysts, researchers. And, you know, they support me to do all kinds of things. You know, one of my biggest roles to support ACC is providing policy analysis of new regulations and legislation, quantifying the economic contributions of the business of chemistry and the products. I track business conditions so that we have a sense of, you know, what the operating situation is for our member companies. And I develop forecasts for the US macroeconomy, for end-use markets that our companies sell into, and of course, of course, the chemical industry. And I give outlooks, you know, to our member companies and other groups, and I'm really looking forward to sharing our latest outlook in September.
Victoria Meyer:
Awesome. I am as well. And so when you say, talk about you help provide inputs to policy and analyze policies, I guess this is with that economic lens, like what does this mean for the economics and the profitability? I get, well, I guess maybe not so much profitability, but perhaps you could tell me more on that, but certainly supply, demand, and just the impact.
Martha Moore:
Absolutely. Yeah. So, you know, it's sort of boiling down how a particular piece of legislation or regulation, right, it's going to press on a lever and how does that lever impact what happens in the industry and ultimately what happens, you know, to jobs, you know, because the industry employs over half a million people, right? So, you know, being able to, to look at those impacts and look at the, the ultimate drivers on things like employment.
Victoria Meyer:
Yeah. Well, in fact, one of the stats I've often used, and I probably get it a little bit wrong, but I know you know the exact number, which is For every employee inside of a chemical company or inside a chemical manufacturing, it generates somewhere between 5 and 7 jobs in the community. Is that right? Right.
Martha Moore:
Yeah, it's over 5 additional jobs elsewhere in the economy. So, you know, it's not just what's happening inside the chemical plant. It's right there, the purchases. So you're purchasing transportation services or raw materials or electricity or legal services, and those That economic impact influences economic impact, you know, around a broad circle. And there's also the household spending, right? So the chemical plants, they pay their, their workers and their suppliers pay their workers. And so there's economic activity that is driven by those payroll-induced impacts as well.
Victoria Meyer:
Yeah, absolutely. And I think about it from just even the simplistic perspective of you need a grocery store, you need schools, and you need all those things. And it just, the multiplier effect is really amazing.
Martha Moore:
It is. It's huge. I think there's an additional 3.2 million jobs that are created, or supported rather, within the economy as a result of the chemical industry in the United States.
Victoria Meyer:
That's really awesome. Great. So as we sit here in mid-2026, which has been yet another interesting year, how would you just characterize the economic environment for chemicals and what's really driving that?
Martha Moore:
Yeah. So, you know, when I was talking to folks at the end of 2025, I characterized 2025 as the year of uncertainty, if you will. Little did we know what was going to happen in 2026. It has been an interesting year for sure. But, you know, I look at sort of the underlying demand drivers for chemicals. And there's 3 basic pillars that I look at. The, you know, consumer spending on goods, right, the stuff that people buy. I mean, there's consumer spending in services as well, but I focus on the goods piece of it.
Martha Moore:
Investment in equipment and structures. So things like houses and large developments. And finally, exports. And I'll dig into each one of these a little bit and sort of tell you about the outlook for that. So backing up a little bit, about 75% of chemicals are directly purchased by the manufacturing sector. And, you know, there's about 20 key end-use sectors that we look at for chemical demand. It's a mix of, you know, sort of consumer-facing industries and business-facing industries. There's a mix there.
Martha Moore:
So the first pillar, consumer spending, that's really been mixed recently. I'm sure your listeners have heard about the K-shaped economy. economy, right?
Victoria Meyer:
Yeah.
Martha Moore:
So, you know, really it's the high-end, the high-income consumers that are carrying a lot of the water for consumer spending this year. We've seen the level of consumer spending sort of ease a little bit. The lower-income, middle-income consumers, they're squeezing every last drop of life out of, out of each dollar. And we've actually seen some evidence that some of those, those consumers are pulling back. So it's a little bit of a mixed bag with consumer spending. We're expecting overall consumer spending to slow from 2.6% in 2025 to 2.1% this year. So still growth, but at a more moderate pace and really kind of skewed. The second pillar is, is that strong business investment.
Martha Moore:
So the US economy has been fairly resilient this year. And that business investment picture is really the big part. And that's, that's focused on things like AI and data centers, and also, you know, energy infrastructure as well, things like power and LNG. I talked to folks and people ask me this question, which is, you know, is there any chemistry in data centers? And the answer is yes. So Of course, there's a lot of chemistry in data centers. We're actually working to try to quantify that. But, you know, just sort of anecdotally, think of the insulation in the wires, like all of that wiring that goes into a data center. There's an insulation piece of it.
Martha Moore:
There's refrigerants, there's thermal cooling fluids, there's all of the chemistry that goes into creating the structure, the envelope. And then there's the semiconductors, right? A tremendous amount of chemistry, over 500 chemicals go into making just the most basic computer chip.
Victoria Meyer:
Wow.
Martha Moore:
You know, the really high—
Victoria Meyer:
It's hard to imagine, right? Like, just to think about the enormity of that, because a chip is really pretty small, but to have that much influence is crazy.
Martha Moore:
Right, right. These high purity, highly specialized chemistries that make computer chips possible, you couldn't get there without it, without chemistry. Other parts of the investment picture are lagging a little bit, things like housing, of course, and other parts of the non-residential sector. So again, there is a little bit mixed bag as well. The third pillar is exports. So the US chemical industry exports about a quarter of what it produces every year. And so we're really interested in, you know, kind of what's happening in the manufacturing sectors in those economies that we trade in, places like Europe and Japan and Korea, Canada, Mexico. Of course, our USMCA trading partners are critically important.
Martha Moore:
And, you know, we've seen exports up about 4% this year. So exports are doing Doing pretty well.
Victoria Meyer:
How, so, uh, can we talk a little bit about exports? Because like, how has that export picture changed? Let's just say over the past 5 or 10 years. So up 4% this year is excellent, but I know that anecdotally, I know that from talking to people, we keep talking about the pressure from China in particular, and the exports that are coming, I guess the imports, I guess that would be coming from China or really just China's effect on the global chemical industry, which then of course affects the American chemical industry. So what have you seen kind of in terms of just a general trend?
Martha Moore:
Yeah. Well, I mean, exports have been on a rise. I mean, there were a couple bumpy years, you know, in the pandemic and, and, you know, coming out of the pandemic was very strong, but we had a couple of bumpy years in there and we're finally back on track. I mean, in terms of China, our imports from China really have, I, I'd have to check the data to be honest with you, Victoria, but my sense is I recall that they haven't changed considerably. China is, I think, the 3rd largest source of imports imported chemicals into the United States, and that has not changed over the last couple of years.
Victoria Meyer:
Yeah. Well, and I think that ties maybe a little bit, you know, certainly we talk about, you know, what 2025 has been and 2026. And 2025, of course, was so dramatically impacted by tariffs and other geopolitical, you know, so that financial event, but also geopolitical events. We move into 2026 and, you know, every year when I talk to people like, okay, this year's gonna be Smoother. And oh no, along comes another war and supply chain issues and other stuff. But when you look at this and, you know, how do you see the global events and these shifts, um, really showing up in your economic forecast? And I, you know, I, economists love to talk about winds, it seems like headwinds and tailwinds, but how does this show up when you actually look at your numbers and your expectations?
Martha Moore:
Right. So, you know, recent events in the Middle East, you know, caused a lot of disruptions to chemical flows and flows of feedstock from that region. And so that certainly had an impact. You know, we have a chemical regional production indicator, CIPRI we call it, for the global chemical industry and some of the main regions in there. CIPRI for June, the chemical regional index for June, production was off 1% from a year ago, and there were declines really across most of the regions. Of course, the Middle East and the, and the, and Asian producers are probably the most exposed here.
Victoria Meyer:
Yeah.
Martha Moore:
We saw production in the Middle East was off 11% year over year in June, while production in Asia was down almost 1% compared to a year ago. We've seen some, some weakness in US chemical production in recent months as well, but that appears to be more driven by weak consumer demand rather than supply constraints. Of course, here in the United States, we have abundant natural gas liquids resources. So, so our feedstock dynamics are a little bit different than Asia.
Victoria Meyer:
Yeah. Well, and it's interesting, you know, you talk about the weak consumer demand. I know if we just, again, look at the 2020s since, you know, during 2020 when COVID struck, I mean, I think people thought it would get in, was going to be, and there was a short-term real dip in chemicals, but then it came back charging pretty well. most of 2020, 2021, maybe not across all industries. And I even heard a lot of conversation about how 2020 and 2021, there was a lot of purchases of goods, right? Because, yeah, let's redo our— I'm spending all my time at home. Let me redo my office. Let me redo my house. Let me go remodel, paint, whatever, all this stuff.
Martha Moore:
Right.
Victoria Meyer:
Yeah, buy some new furniture. And then the shift when things seem to reopen, so '23 and '24, a shift to more services, which of course then influences spending and where it goes. I think, you know, how have you really seen this? And it's, you know, again, these are anecdotally people talk about this, but then it manifests somewhere in the economics.
Martha Moore:
Yeah. Moments like the Strait of Hormuz, you know, they don't just stress supply chains. They expose how dependent every sector really is on chemistry. So you talked about all those different flows and You know, we, from a national resilience perspective, we need to strengthen domestic chemical and plastics manufacturing. We need to invest in the infrastructure to support it and build resilience into this industry that powers everything from energy to advanced manufacturing.
Victoria Meyer:
Yeah. Awesome. Let's turn a little bit to what your members are saying. So I know that ACC just recently completed its annual member survey. And, you know, you also, you have that, you have the Economic Sentiment Index, but Between those 2, what, what's been revealed about the members, your member companies, chemical companies across the US?
Martha Moore:
Right. Yeah. So we have 2 surveys that both recently come out. So we have our Chemical Manufacturing Economic Sentiment Index, we call it the ESI, which is a quarterly snapshot of how our members assess current economic conditions, their, the environment that they're operating in, and their company's recent activity in areas like production levels and capacity utilization, cash capital expenditures and headcount. You know, the Q2 results were mostly positive. Expectations over the next 6 months softened a little bit. The economic survey, on the other hand, that's an annual survey that we conduct to get member input on things like how much they're spending on R&D, you know, what geographies are they investing in, and what are some of the top business challenges that their companies are facing. And, you know, the top 3 that came out this year cited, you know, the top 3 challenges cited by our members.
Martha Moore:
Number increased raw material costs. Number 2, transportation logistics costs. And number 3 was, was trade uncertainties. And in terms of, you know, geographic investment plans, you know, 46% of members plan to increase their CapEx in the United States over the next 5 years, followed by plans to invest also places like India, China, and Western Europe.
Victoria Meyer:
That's really positive.
Martha Moore:
Yeah.
Victoria Meyer:
At least the investment piece of it. And frankly, no surprise that they're concerned about raw material costs, because we've seen that transportation supply chain has been a challenge and the rising costs. And I know we'll talk about this maybe a little bit, just the dependence, I guess, in some ways that the industry has on transportation. Railroads, big piece of it, trucking, marine freight. I know that has a big influence. How has this changed that when you think about what members are saying today versus versus what they've said previously, what's been really significantly either the same or significantly different about their concerns, their challenges, their opportunities?
Martha Moore:
So in this survey, we do ask them their top challenges, sort of where they were last year compared to this year. And we definitely saw a jump up in that raw material costs as that top concern that rose to the number one spot. 75% of members identified that as a challenge. significantly from 48% in 2025. Similarly, for transportation and logistics costs, we saw the share increase from 37% in 2025 to 71% this year. Wow.
Victoria Meyer:
That's big.
Martha Moore:
So yeah, those are certainly top of mind. And the same with trade uncertainty, that didn't change a tremendous amount. That's still at the, at the top there.
Victoria Meyer:
Yeah. And then what do you guys do with this information? How are— I mean, so you're obviously collecting information. from your member companies. You're doing a whole lot of work every day with data and figuring this out. What happens next?
Martha Moore:
You know, certainly for the economic survey, this, this annual survey with the top challenges, that helps us, you know, sort of refine our priorities, you know, so that we can do the best job that we can in Washington and in the state capitals to represent the industry. And, you know, for the ESI, it's just really helpful for us to kind of understand how our members are feeling, sort of what their, what their sort of internal business drivers are.
Victoria Meyer:
Yeah. And do you gauge kind of the sentiment of the people, people and talent? So I know, I recently spoke with Jeff Smith from Mercer. In fact, he's also going to be at the Chemical Summit. And Mercer does a biannual talent, global talent trends survey. And they really noted a declining sentiment around just the confidence that people have in their own in themselves and how they, whether they feel like they're thriving. In fact, that I think is actually the word that they use, a declining sentiment in whether they're thriving at work. And I guess, you know, let's be honest, how we feel at work influences how we feel across life, right? It's interdependent. Have you seen some of the same things as you look at your ACC surveys?
Martha Moore:
Yeah, I actually listened to that podcast. That was really interesting. So our survey looks at kind of a different, and we take a different view, you know, that kind of measure different things. The Economic Sentiment Index tracks, you know, members' assessment of things. So it's really kind of a thumbs up, thumbs down, thumbs sideways sort of—
Victoria Meyer:
Got it.
Martha Moore:
And, you know, in Q2, more companies had a positive assessment of their company's business activity than negative for the second consecutive quarter. So I think that's a little bit of an uplift. And, you know, that comes despite their assessment that economic conditions in both the United States and globally have deteriorated in Q2. The production index actually rose to its highest level since the survey's inception in the first quarter of 2023. We also saw new orders, capacity utilization, and order backlogs remained positive. But looking ahead, we also asked them, you know, for all of these things that you just told us about, what are your expectations 6 months ahead? And looking ahead, I think I would characterize their expectations as slightly less optimistic than they were looking into the future from the first quarter. Economic conditions and customer market demand are expected to improve, but global economic conditions, they still expect a deterioration. And company activity level, they're kind of expecting their company activity level in the next 6 months to be about the same as it is now.
Victoria Meyer:
Yeah. And it, I mean, it may be that, that kind of goes along with some of the sentiment that we've seen. And I've had some experts from S&P Global or Chemical Market Analytics and ICIS on the Chemical Show. And there's this bit of an expectation that we're in kind of a a down period across the chemical industry by and large. A lot of it driven by supply-demand imbalances, a lot of it driven, of course, by economic activity. But really with this expectation that we're not seeing real uplift until, and maybe I'll call it structural uplift, until the end of the decade.
Martha Moore:
You know, yeah, there's that durable cycle that we talked about, you know, coming out of the pandemic, everybody was buying lots of stuff, right? All that chemistry stuff. And so we saw a downturn from that. Now we've had some, you know, sort of disruptions and Yeah, it's, it's gonna be, you know, we've got a, a mixed outlook really for 2026. So we're looking for US chemical output to be flat, and there's, you know, kind of a mix of what's going on in between there. But really looking ahead to 2027, 2028, we do expect stronger growth. I think we've got 1.5% in for 2027, 2.3% increase for 2028 as sort of that foundation firms, that durable cycle re-engages. We kind of get through, you know, some of these disruptions, you know, not just for the industry, but industry itself, but for the companies and the industries that we sell into, right? The inner networking of all of these industries, and at the base of it, you know, is chemistry. Chemistry is foundational to the rest of the economy.
Victoria Meyer:
Yeah, absolutely. So as you look to just kind of this whole policy piece, trade industry priorities, ACC plays such a critical role across the industry in terms of representing its member companies, engaging on policy issues. Working with the, you know, with the Hill and the feds, as I might say, but, you know, and other groups. What are the top priorities and the top issues that are impacting the chemical industry growth and stability and that ACC is focused on?
Martha Moore:
Yeah, I mean, our number one priority remains chemicals management, right? And getting targeted fixes to TSCA, which is the Toxic Substances Control Act. You know, we want to get those fixes in place so that our members can get back to the business of innovating in the US. The 2016 reforms, you know, the Lautenberg Act, you know, it established a solid statutory foundation to transform the TSCA program. But implementation has been inconsistent, unpredictable, and increasingly disconnected from real-world scenarios, the best available science, and statutory mandates. They've really sort of departed from that.
Victoria Meyer:
Mm-hmm.
Martha Moore:
New chemical reviews are just sitting on EPA's desk while companies are thinking about just, you know, introducing new chemicals somewhere else in the world. And that really has an impact on innovation, you know, both in the short term and in the long term. There's been legislation that was recently released in the House and Senate that takes an important step to, you know, achieving a modern science-driven program, you know, that protects public and environmental health while enabling innovation to expand. And trade policy, certainly, I think that would be our number 2 biggest priority issue. Our members certainly appreciate you know, the administration's efforts to promote competitiveness of the US chemical industry in a world where there are those unfair trading practices and rising global overcapacity.
Victoria Meyer:
Let's talk a little bit about trade policy. You know, certainly if I look over the last couple of years in particular, we've had global tariffs in place. I know that there's been things being turned on and turned off. And as you've already noted, a lot of this is around creating the right economic and a balanced economic environment is the goal for North American producers, etc. How do you— where do you see this going? What's the influence that this has had really on chemical manufacturers? What are your people saying? What are companies across the industry saying about this?
Martha Moore:
Right. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, the number one takeaway from some of this has been the uncertainty that it's created, right? That's created a really challenging environment for companies to operate in. I think, you know, exports are hugely important for this industry. I said we export a quarter of what we produce. We're the second largest manufacturing exporter. But imports are also really important to this industry. We bring in a lot of imports into this country to add value here in the United States.
Martha Moore:
And so to the extent that that message resonates, I think that would be an important thing to take away.
Victoria Meyer:
Yeah, absolutely. And I know from, again, from talking to a variety of chemical companies, there's just certain products that we don't manufacture here, so we need to be able to import them. And they are critical components for other chemical products, for other goods in manufacturing, et cetera. So getting to that place is important.
Martha Moore:
And more than half of, more than half of our imports are actually between related parties. So between one subsidiary of, you know, a company that's operating elsewhere into the world, they're bringing product here into the United States to have value added to it at their manufacturing locations here in the US. So that's another important consideration.
Victoria Meyer:
I think that's interesting. And that is something that I think is sometimes underlooked is just that it's actually, it's intercompany or intracompany, I guess it would be. And so therefore it's really, it's creating additional value, right? That value-add aspect. And I know you guys, you and others at ACC, are doing a lot of advocacy work. And we talked a little bit about just the impact of the industry, of the chemical industry, just on its communities, on the broader American public and economy. How do you get policymakers to really appreciate that? So what's the tactics? How do you engage? I think this is one of the— by the way, this is maybe one of my mysteries of life. But I think this whole thing of when you're close to the chemical industry, you see the impact. Like when people say, I don't use any chemicals.
Victoria Meyer:
Really? Did you brush your teeth today? Did you wash your hair? How do you like the paint on your walls?
Martha Moore:
Right?
Victoria Meyer:
How do you help policymakers see that as well?
Martha Moore:
Yeah, no, you've mentioned a lot of the things. So, you know, chemistry is foundational to our economy, and being able to communicate that message is one of the top things we do. For me personally, you know, I try to help people make the connection between chemistry and the experiences that they're having in their everyday lives. You mentioned the paint on the wall, but it's also like, did you talk on a cell phone today? Did you drive a car? Did you use your computer to write a prompt for ChatGPT? You know, all of those things are made possible by chemistry. And so we've done a lot of work sort of communicating that message and, and getting policymakers to really stop and think about about, you know, how they interact with chemistry in their everyday lives. And then, of course, you know, we've got the numbers. The numbers speak for themselves. The chemical industry provides a huge economic contribution to the US economy.
Martha Moore:
You know, it's one of the largest manufacturing sectors, over half a billion dollars of shipments, over half a million people employed in this industry. And these are high-paying knowledge jobs. You know, the average chemical worker makes over $100,000 a year. And, you know, we talked earlier about, you know, how that spills over into the communities that they operate in. in. And, you know, the products of chemistry are important to supporting US GDP. So more than a quarter of US GDP is from industries that depend on chemistry for more— 10% or more than, you know, the inputs that they bring in to manufacture or produce a good or service. So big impact there.
Victoria Meyer:
That's really significant. Very much so. So as we look ahead, as you look ahead, and I know part of your your job is forecasting and looking ahead to, to see what the numbers look like, but also sentiment and other things. What are you most optimistic about? We're sitting here mid-2026, and I actually think we have a lot to be optimistic about. But how about from your perspective, as you look ahead, what are you hopeful about?
Martha Moore:
Yeah, no, I think you're right. I'm optimistic as well, for a couple of reasons. I think the first is, you know, there's been such tremendous momentum about bringing manufacturing back to the United States. Every week I'm looking at these new announcements, you know, for new things that have been announced in manufacturing in the US, and it runs the gamut. So it's, you know, communications equipment, semiconductors, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, defense equipment, right? All of these things, once, you know, these factories are built, all of them are going to require chemistry to make the product that they are ultimately making for the economy. And so bringing you know, manufacturing back to the United States is really going to boost chemical demand. And a lot of that chemistry is going to be made here in the United States. The other thing I'm really optimistic about is innovation, right? The business of chemistry has always been the business of innovation, you know, and that ability to innovate is key to US competitiveness.
Martha Moore:
And, you know, the US has historically had, you know, a real center of excellence, you know, in terms of innovation producing here in the United States. We've got a got to fix Tosca, of course. But there's a, there's a lot more kind of underlying that. You know, our companies continue to make the investments here in the US to keep the chemical industry at the vanguard. You know, we're developing new molecules, new materials, new applications, new ways to, to make these materials. It's a really exciting time to be in the industry.
Victoria Meyer:
Yeah, I think it's great. And I do think, I think innovation is such a foundational pillar for the industry. On the flip side, what are the pressure points that you see intensifying maybe over the coming year?
Martha Moore:
Yeah, so we, you know, I think demand uncertainty from those key end-use markets, that's probably the top thing that keeps me awake at night. And also, you know, unfair trading practices from non-market economies. We talked about this a little bit earlier. You know, by 2030, China will account for nearly half of global basic chemical and synthetic material capacity.
Victoria Meyer:
Wow.
Martha Moore:
Nearly half, 48%. And that's That's up from less than 7% in 2001 when China joined the WTO. China's 5-year plans have a stated goal to increase, you know, self-sufficiency and produce materials that they can use for their domestic economy, which is fair. But China anticipated much larger growth or much faster growth than has really materialized, right? They built for an economy they thought was going to be here, and the economy is really here. And part of that is their domestic consumer sector really has not taken off. There's, you They've been weighed down by the property decline, which is now in its 5th year. They've got a declining working age population. So there's a lot more capacity in China than there is consumption.
Martha Moore:
And that gap is, is growing. And that has implications, you know, not only for the United States, but also to a lot of those other export markets that we send products to.
Victoria Meyer:
Yeah.
Martha Moore:
And Chinese firms don't need to make a profit. That is something that's a little bit different than the rest of the world or how many, many firms in the rest of the world operate. You know, just looking at Chinese government data in June, of 2026, 27% of chemical firms were loss-making. They were not profitable. And so it's hard to compete with those types of non-market practices.
Victoria Meyer:
Yeah, I agree with that. And I think that's a really good point, the competing on a different basis, right? Like, you know, most US companies, European, other parts of the world, our traditional trading partners, are are competing on profitability, on true profitability. And when you're not competing in the same way, it can be challenging. And of course, I guess this is where you and others help engage on trade policies just to create that appropriate economic environment there. And, you know, one of the things we didn't really touch on, and maybe we can talk about this a little bit when you come to Houston in September, but certainly, you know, you're focused in representing the American Chemistry Council, but we have a lot of trading partners, and I know you must engage more globally as well with other trade groups to understand policies and impacts, etc. Does that— is that part of what you do?
Martha Moore:
Yeah, no, ACC generally, yeah, we— I participate with our European partners, but we have others in the building. I mean, this is what they do day and night. This is their bread and butter. We have a whole team that focuses on trade policy, and they are very engaged. engaged with our global partners in USMCA, in the ICCA, which is the International Council of Chemical Associations. So there's a— there are a lot of folks that are working on these issues. Awesome.
Victoria Meyer:
If you could give one message to chemical industry leaders, so their one walkaway point from our conversation today, as an industry and a group of leaders that are navigating all these changes, what would it be?
Martha Moore:
Look to the next decade, right? You know, demand is going to recover, but that competitive advantage that's So I think, you know, being nimble and, and keeping our eye on the long term, I think, is, is the message I would convey.
Victoria Meyer:
Awesome. Great. Well, Martha, thank you so much for joining me today. This has been a great conversation.
Martha Moore:
This was great. I really appreciate it. Thanks, Victoria.
Victoria Meyer:
Absolutely. And thank you everyone for joining us. Keep listening, keep following, keep sharing, and we will talk with you again soon. Thanks for joining us today on The Chemical Show. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and most importantly, share it with your friends and colleagues. For more insights, visit thechemicalshow.com and connect with us on LinkedIn. You can find me at Victoria King-Meyer on LinkedIn, and you can also find us at The Chemical Show Podcast. Join us next time for more conversations and strategies shaping the future of the industry.
Victoria Meyer:
We'll see you soon.