Following a two-year period of growth driven by the general economic expansion and the availability of EU funding, the construction market in Romania experienced a slight shrinkage in 2016, due to a combination of lower construction work volumes in some subsectors, lower investments and political tensions. The construction sector’s output in 2016 (defined in terms of total construction works performed under contract) was RON 67.6bn, down 11.4% y/y in nominal terms. The sector’s gross valueadded (GVA) formed 7.7% of the real GDP. The sector also employed 365,298 people. Construction was driven mainly by rapid developments in the real estate market that stimulated the growth of residential buildings’ construction. Rising income levels and an increase in employment are driving the demand for residential property, particularly among middle-income Romanians. The boom in services in Romania – particularly in the information and communications technology (ICT), business process outsourcing (BPO) and retail sectors – is boosting the demand for office space

In 2016 the gross value added (GVA) of the Romanian agriculture, forestry and fishing sector reached RON 29,654.2mn and accounted for 4.34% of Romania’s total GVA and 3.89% of GDP. There were 1.726mn persons employed in the sector, which accounted for 20.8% of total employment in the Romanian economy. Romania has significant agricultural production potential due to its size and natural conditions, which include good quality soils. However, this potential cannot be realised because of an unfavourable farm structure. Agricultural holdings of less than 1 ha accounted for 53% of the total number of farms in 2016. Extreme fragmentation affects productivity and average yields, which in Romania are lower than those of the most productive EU countries. Despite this fragmentation Romania is an important agricultural producer – being the second-largest producer of grain maize in the EU and its third-largest producer of oilseeds.

The automotive sector is one of the key industries in Poland and it generated around 7% of the country's GDP in 2016. A total of 174,000 people are employed in the manufacturing of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers, accounting for more than 8% of employment in manufacturing industries and over 1% of the employment in the entire economy. Poland specialises in the manufacturing of car parts and accessories, whose exports have tripled since Poland joined the EU in 2004, as well as of light commercial vehicles (LCVs), buses, coaches, and semi-trailers. There are only three major passenger car manufacturers present in Poland – FCA Group, General Motors and Volkswagen.

In 2016 Poland’s agricultural sector including hunting, forestry and fishing accounted for 2.38% of GDP and 16% of total employment. The gross value added (GVA) of the sector reached PLN 44.23bn, up 11.6% y/y. There were 2.391mn employees working in the agriculture sector, which is highly fragmented with 74.6% of farms having an area of under 10 ha. Farms with over 15 ha of land make up 15.2% of all Polish farms, but use 60.6% of the agricultural area. Poland is a significant EU agricultural producer. It was the largest producer of apples, the second-largest producer of potatoes and the third-largest producer of cereals in 2016. According to estimates by the statistics office, in 2017 the cereal harvest reached 32.21mn tonnes, 8% higher y/y.

With estimated net revenues of USD 119.6bn in 2017, Brazil’s chemical sector was the eighth largest in the world and the leader in Latin America. Compared to 2016, the industry’s turnover rose by 9.5% y/y, as the uptick in economic activity propelled the domestic demand for chemicals from the main industrial consumers – the agriculture, automotive and durable goods sectors. However, the country remains highly dependent on imports of chemical products, as local production is not able to entirely meet domestic demand. Since 1991, the trade deficit in chemicals has increased nearly 15 times, reaching USD 23.4bn in 2017. A major factor for this negative development can be attributed to poor investment in R&D and modernisation of production capacity that has led to a steady loss of competitiveness of domestic chemical products. The 2015-2016 economic recession unleashed a restructuring

In May, the OPEC Reference Basket (ORB) increased by about 8.5% above the previous month, settling at $74.11/b. Year-to-date in May, the ORB value was 31.7% higher at $67.48/b, compared to the same period in 2017. In comparison, Dated Brent rose by 7.4%, Dubai by 8.7% and spot WTI by 5.4%, m-o-m. The oil market continues to be underpinned by escalating geopolitical tensions and bullish drawdowns in US crude inventories. However, late in the month, prices slipped on talk of a potential easing of output adjustments. With regard to crude oil futures, ICE Brent was $5.24/b, or 7.3%, higher at $77.01/b, while NYMEX WTI gained $3.66, or 5.5%, to average $69.98/b m-o-m. Y-t-d, ICE Brent is 30.6% higher at $70.22/b, while NYMEX WTI rose 27.7% to $65.09/b, compared to the same period a year earlier. The ICE Brent/NYMEX WTI spread widened by $1.59 to $7.02/b in May, on increasing US supplies. Despite the surge in crude oil futures prices, speculative net long positions ended lower. The Dubai market structure moved deeper into backwardation, while that of Brent eased markedly and WTI remained unchanged. The sweet/sour differentials narrowed in Europe and Asia, while in the US Gulf Coast (USGC), the spread widened.

Injection molding is one of the most preferred processes to manufacture essential components, which are to be used in original equipment manufacturing (OEM) for a wide range of industries. Currently, injection molding is used to manufacture almost all types of plastic part components, including polypropylene and polypropylene composites. The applications covered in this study include transportation, electricals & electronics, packaging, aerospace & defense, and others.

Industrial control systems include various automation equipment, machines, and components for process control. These systems are interconnected to monitor, control, and perform various industrial tasks & automate processes. Furthermore, the development of networking technology and the advent of industrial control systems have simplified the industrial processes. Moreover, ICS provides high precision, improved product quality, and reliability in their results. Thus, based on the control systems, the industrial controls market is categorized into distributed control system (DCS), supervisory control & data acquisition system (SCADA), manufacturing execution system (MES), and others.

Fuel cards provide various benefits to fleet vendors by capturing low-level data on mileage of vehicles, the gallons of fuel filled, and the need for servicing the vehicle. Fuel card service providers have started to embed the telematics interface and robust reporting facilities as standard product offerings to improve fleet management productivity. Moreover, there are various forms in which fuel cards are available, these include branded fuel cards, universal fuel cards, and merchant cards. The merchant fuel cards are anticipated to witness the highest growth rate during the forecast period.