Chemical firms boast strong overseas sales: Foreign sales of 20 U.S. chemical companies surveyed by C&EN rose 29% in 1979, account for nearly a third of their overall sales

For the past year or more U.S. chemical companies have been boasting of the extraordinary successes they have been achieving overseas. Both exports from the U.S. and products produced in their foreign plants have been selling well, they say. With final figures for 1979 now available, it appears the companies have good reason for boasting. Overseas sales for 20 U.S. chemical companies surveyed by C&EN increased 29% to $20.3 billion in 1979. This is a faster rise than that for total sales for these companies and thus it shows that their foreign business in 1979 grew faster than domestic business. Total sales, both domestic and overseas, grew 22% to $64.4 billion for these companies from 1978. Domestic sales increased only 20% in 1979 from 1978—a respectable figure, but in last year's boom, indicative of some signs of underlying weakness in the domestic economy. U.S. producers have long used their overseas business to buffer lagging U.S. ...