2021 Global chemical industry mergers and acquisitions outlook

After four straight years of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) volume declines, will 2021 finally buck the trend or will the declines continue? How did COVID-19 impact 2020 global chemical M&A activity? Will the chemical industry’s move toward sustainability take a back seat as companies tackle the challenges presented by COVID-19, or will they continue to look to M&A to help drive their sustainability agenda?

With 2020 behind us and 2021 ahead, we thought it would be an opportune time to take the pulse of chemical executives and determine their sentiments regarding the M&A market and their upcoming priorities. What insights can be gained from our M&A survey as it relates to the M&A appetite among chemical executives as 2021 continues?

We will explore this in the 2021 Global chemical industry mergers and acquisitions outlook.

Deloitte polled 35 global executives at chemical companies across chemical subsectors and geographies between September 10 and November 3, 2020, to assess current and future M&A plans. Chemical executives were nearly unanimous in their positive M&A outlook looking forward to 2021, sending a clear signal that M&A activity will be an important lever as their companies recover and look for growth this year.