On July 24th, Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) released its annual list of the top 50 global chemical companies for 2023. The top three remain unchanged, with BASF retaining its position as the world’s largest chemical manufacturer, followed by Sinopec in second place and Dow in third. Seven Chinese chemical companies made the list.
BASF, with chemical sales of $92 billion in 2022, maintained its top position, followed by Sinopec with $66.9 billion, trailing BASF by more than $25 billion, and Dow with approximately $56.9 billion in sales.
China has consistently been a driving force for global chemical industry development, with seven Chinese chemical companies making the top 50. In addition to Sinopec, Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics ranked seventh, China National Petroleum ranked tenth, Hengli Petrochemical ranked eleventh, Sinochem’s Syngenta ranked fifteenth, Rongsheng Petrochemical ranked sixteenth, and Wanhua Chemical ranked eighteenth.
Among the world’s top 50 chemical companies, there are 10 in the United States, 7 in Japan, 4 in Germany, 3 in the United Kingdom, and 2 in South Korea.
The revenue threshold for this year’s top 50 is $9.7 billion, a slight increase of nearly $800 million from last year. There are three companies with sales of more than $50 billion, five with sales of $40 billion to $50 billion, five with sales of $30 billion to $40 billion, eight with sales of $20 billion to $30 billion, and 25 with sales of $10 billion to $20 billion.
The world’s 50 largest chemical companies had combined sales of $1.2 trillion, up 17 percent from 2021, largely due to higher selling prices rather than increased production.
However, the profitability of chemical companies is not optimistic. Chemical profit growth for the 42 companies that disclosed profit data declined 7 percent compared to 2021, totaling $117.7 billion.
Fertilizer companies, however, have seen sales and profits surge, with Yara, Nutrien, and Legg Mason, for example, seeing sales rise 40 percent or more due to higher prices. Profit growth was more than 89%. Three companies, CF Industries, Israel Chemical Group, and OCI, also entered the global Top 50 for the first time due to the strong development of the international fertilizer market.
Sources: Company documents, C&EN analysis.
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