Commissioned by members of Chemistry Australia, the Chemical Sector Economic Contribution Analysis report tables the economic contribution of the Australian chemistry industry, which represents the largest gas-based manufacturing sector in Australia.

The report estimates the direct and indirect economic value of the output of the Australian chemical industry during the financial year 2017-2018.

Key data:

• The chemistry sector drives more than $286 million of local economic activity for every petajoule of gas it consumes
• This is 33 times more than the LNG industry and 68 times more than the gas-fired electricity generation industry
• The sector also supports more than 1,600 full time equivalent jobs for every petajoule of gas it uses; this is 80 times higher than LNG, and 150 times more than the gas-fired electricity generation sector
• Australians receive $277 million more in economic benefit from a petajoule of gas that goes through the chemistry industry than they do from a petajoule of gas going to LNG exports
• The chemistry industry underpins more than 212,000 full time equivalent jobs across the economy
• 80 per cent of the chemistry sector is located in Victoria, NSW and Queensland
• The chemistry sector directly employs 61,458 people in full time equivalent jobs with the bulk of employment concentrated in Victoria (19,550), NSW (19,303) and Queensland (11,372)
• In 2017-18, the chemistry sector contributed $11.2 billion to NSW GSP, $10.5 billion to Victoria GSP and $6.8 billion to Queensland GSP