Chemical & Engineering News publishes an annual list of the world's largest chemical producers by sales, excluding formulated products such as pharmaceutical drugs and coatings. [1] In 2018, sales of the top fifty companies amounted to US$ 951,000,000,000, an increase of 11.8% compared to the top fifty producers of 2017. [2] The American Chemistry Council estimated that global chemical sales in 2014 rose by 3.7% to US$ 5,389,000,000,000. [3]
In 2018, Forty-eight of the companies on the list disclosed chemical profits, which totaled US$ 110,100,000,000, an increase of 1.3% from 2017. The average profit margin for chemical operations for these companies was 9.6%. [1]
Rank | Company | Chemical sales in 2018 USD millions [A] | Change from 2017 in percent | Headquarters |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | DowDuPont | 85,977 | 37.6 | ![]() |
2 | BASF | 74,066 | 2.4 | ![]() |
3 | Sinopec | 69,210 | 22.4 | ![]() |
4 | Sabic | 42,120 | 12 | ![]() |
5 | Ineos | 36,970 | 2.1 | ![]() |
6 | Formosa Plastics [B] | 36,891 | 13.8 | ![]() |
7 | ExxonMobil Chemical | 32,443 | 13.1 | ![]() |
8 | LyondellBasell Industries | 30,783 | 8.7 | ![]() ![]() |
9 | Mitsubishi Chemical | 28,747 | 7.1 | ![]() |
10 | DuPont | 25,935 | 37.6 | ![]() |
11 | LG Chem | 25,637 | 9.7 | ![]() |
12 | Reliance Industries | 25,167 | 37.3 | ![]() |
13 | PetroChina | 24,849 | n/a | ![]() |
14 | Air Liquide | 24,322 | 2.8 | ![]() |
15 | Toray Industries | 18,651 | 8.7 | ![]() |
16 | Evonik Industries | 17,755 | 4.2 | ![]() |
17 | Covestro | 17,273 | 3.4 | ![]() |
18 | Bayer [C] | 16,859 | 49 | ![]() |
19 | Sumitomo Chemical | 16,081 | 8.7 | ![]() |
20 | Braskem | 15,885 | 17.7 | ![]() |
21 | Lotte Chemical | 15,051 | 4.2 | ![]() |
22 | Linde plc | 14,900 | 30.3 | ![]() ![]() |
23 | Shin-Etsu Chemical [C] | 14,439 | 10.6 | ![]() |
24 | Mitsui Chemicals | 13,432 | 11.6 | ![]() |
25 | Solvay | 13,353 | 3.7 | ![]() |
26 | Yara | 12,928 | 13.8 | ![]() |
27 | Chevron Phillips Chemical | 11,310 | 24.8 | ![]() |
28 | DSM | 10,951 | 7.4 | ![]() |
29 | Indorama | 10,747 | 21.2 | ![]() |
30 | Asahi Kasei | 10,654 | 8.1 | ![]() |
31 | Arkema | 10,418 | 5.9 | ![]() |
32 | Syngenta | 10,413 | 12.6 | ![]() |
33 | Eastman Chemical | 10,151 | 6.3 | ![]() |
34 | Borealis | 9,852 | 10.2 | ![]() |
35 | SK Innovation | 9,719 | 14.4 | ![]() |
36 | Mosaic | 9,587 | 29.4 | ![]() |
37 | Huntsman | 9,379 | 12.2 | ![]() |
38 | Wanhua Chemical | 9,172 | 14.1 | ![]() |
39 | PTT Global Chemical | 8,969 | 15.7 | ![]() |
40 | Ecolab [C] | 8,964 | 11 | ![]() |
41 | Air Products & Chemicals | 8,930 | 9.1 | ![]() |
42 | Westlake Chemical | 8,635 | 7.4 | ![]() |
43 | Lanxess | 8,505 | -25.5 | ![]() |
44 | Nutrien | 8,130 | 75.9 | ![]() |
45 | Umicore [C] | 8,113 | 27.1 | ![]() |
46 | Sasol | 8,110 | 4.2 | ![]() |
47 | Tosoh | 7,803 | 4.7 | ![]() |
48 | Johnson Matthey [C] | 7,579 | 16.1 | ![]() |
49 | DIC | 7,296 | 2 | ![]() |
50 | Hanwha Chemical [D] | 7,273 | 3.3 | ![]() |
51 | Celanese | 7,155 | 16.5 | ![]() |
Since Chemical & Engineering News began keeping records in 1989, BASF has been the world's largest chemical producer by annual sales more frequently than any other company. The other companies that have headed the list are Dow Chemical, DowDuPont (which broke up into Dow, a new DuPont, and Corteva Agriscience in 2019), Hoechst (which merged with Rhône-Poulenc in 1999 and is now a subsidiary of Sanofi), ICI (acquired by AkzoNobel in 2008) and Bayer.
Year | Company | Chemical sales USD millions [A] | Source |
---|---|---|---|
1988 | Bayer | 22,694 | [5] |
1989 | BASF | 17,122 | [6] |
1990 | BASF | 18,520 | [7] |
1991 | ICI | 18,127 | [8] |
1992 | BASF | 22,883 | [9] |
1993 | Hoechst | 16,682 | [10] |
1994 | Hoechst | 19,702 | [11] |
1995 | BASF | 22,030 | [12] |
1996 | BASF | 26,519 | [13] |
1997 | BASF | 27,047 | [14] |
1998 | BASF | 27,740 | [15] |
1999 | BASF | 31,250 | [16] |
2000 | BASF | 30,791 | [17] |
2001 | Dow Chemical | 27,805 | [18] |
2002 | Dow Chemical | 27,609 | [19] |
2003 | Dow Chemical | 32,632 | [20] |
2004 | Dow Chemical | 40,161 | [21] |
2005 | Dow Chemical | 46,307 | [22] |
2006 | BASF | 49,516 | [23] |
2007 | BASF | 65,037 | [24] |
2008 | BASF | 70,485 | [25] |
2009 | BASF | 54,817 | [26] |
2010 | BASF | 70,391 | [27] |
2011 | BASF | 85,603 | [28] |
2012 | BASF | 79,760 | [29] |
2013 | BASF | 78,615 | [30] |
2014 | BASF | 78,698 | [31] |
2015 | BASF | 63,749 | [32] |
2016 | BASF | 60,653 | [33] |
2017 | BASF | 69,195 | [2] |
2018 | DowDuPont | 85,977 | [1] |
2019 | BASF | 66,400 | [34] |
2020 | BASF | 67,500 | [35] |
2021 | BASF | 92,982 | [4] |
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