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PLASTICS VIRTUAL CLUSTER<a href="/htdocs/Sharing/Plastic/The-Plastics-Value-chain.txt_cvt.htm">Click here to view the model</a><a href="/htdocs/Sharing/Plastic/Borza-Announcement-October-2005.txt_cvt.htm" target="_self">Plastics Business Opportunities</a>Chemicals industry SMEs play an important role in every European country. The chemical, plastics and rubber are among the largest industrial sectors in Europe. Together they generate about 3.2 million jobs in more than 60.000 companies. Since the beginning of the decade the European chemical sector alone has represented 2/3 of the entire manufacturing trade surplus of the EU. They are dominant in certain activities such as paints, cosmetics, speciality chemicals, fine chemicals and pharmaceutical precursors. &lt;img style="WIDTH: 243px; HEIGHT: 117px" height="117" hspace="10" src="/files/02505200516.20.30-polimero.7dvd" width="243" align="right" vspace="5" border="0" />Chemicals industry SMEs have to cope with many difficulties which are common with SMEs in other sectors, such as the complexity of legislation and administration, the lack of management and marketing resources, difficulties of access to long-term finance and to relevant information sources. The chemical sector also accounts for 12% of the EU manufacturing industry's added value. Thus, the regulations on this sector are a very important and influential part of the EU legislation.Contrary to popular belief, small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) constitute a major part of this industry. More than 95% of chemicals industry companies have fewer than 250 employees and these SMEs account for about 30% of jobs and output in Europe (more than 50% for rubber and plastics processing SMEs).Given the characteristics of many chemical products (not suitable for transport, local markets), it appears that on average, SMEs are involved in the globalisation of markets to the same extent as large chemical groups, and far more than their cousins in other industries. The main problems encountered by chemical SMEs vary sector by sector. The most common export-related complaints are: difficulty in finding suitable partners (31%), logistics and transport costs (25%), the existence of trade barriers (20%), problems with certification and registration.These companies are actually responsible for spreading technology throughout European industry, by enriching and personalising bulk chemical products. Mostly, it is these companies that have to work on a daily basis with tens of thousands of European customers, in order to create value and a competitive edge. </PRE>