List of largest chemical producers

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. In 2018, sales of the top fifty companies amounted to , an increase of 11.8% compared to the top fifty producers of 2017. The American Chemistry Council estimated that global chemical sales in 2014 rose by 3.7% to .

In 2018, Forty-eight of the companies on the list disclosed chemical profits, which totaled , an increase of 1.3% from 2017. The average profit margin for chemical operations for these companies was 9.6%.

Top fifty producers by sales (2021) RankCompany Chemical sales in 2021(USD millions) Change from 2020(percent) Headquarters1BASF92,98232.9%, Ludwigshafen am Rhein2Sinopec65,84831.9%, Beijing3Dow54,96842.6%, Midland, Michigan4SABIC43,23050.1%, Riyadh5Formosa Plastics43,17347.8%, Taipei6Ineos39,937121%, London7Petrochina39,69341.7%, Beijing8LyondellBasell Industries38,99566.6%, Houston, Texas9LG Chem37,25741.8%, Seoul10ExxonMobil36,85859.6%, Spring, Texas11Mitsubishi Chemical Group30,71924.8%, Tokyo12Hengli Petrochemical27,96131.9%, Suzhou13Linde27,92614.5% , Dublin14Air Liquide27,14813.4%, Paris15Syngenta24,90020.9%, Basel16Reliance Industries22,58365.6%, Mumbai17Wanhua22,56198.2%, Yantai18Braskem19,57580.4%, São Paulo19Sumitomo Chemical19,17624.7%, Tokyo and Osaka20Shin-Etsu Chemical18,88538.6%, Tokyo21Covestro18,81348.5%, Leverkusen22Toray Industries17,85620.9%, Tokyo23Evonik Industries17,69222.6%, Essen24Shell16,99345.0%, London25DuPont16,65318.4%, Wilmington, Delaware26Yara16,61743.4%, Oslo27Rongsheng Petrochemical16,00159.6%, Hangzhou28Lotte Chemical15,82748.2%, Seoul29Mitsui Chemicals14,68133.1%, Tokyo30Indorama Ventures14,62641.2%, Bangkok31Chevron Phillips Chemical14,10467.1%, The Woodlands, Texas32Umicore13,56734.4%, Brussels33Solvay13,52717.7%, Brussels34Bayer 12,7439.7%, Leverkusen35Mosaic12,35742.3%, Plymouth, Minnesota36Nutrien11,59062.0%, Saskatoon37Arkema11,26120.7%, Colombes38Asahi Kasei10,90820.9%, Tokyo39DSM10,88813.5%, Heerlen39Hanwha Solutions10,88822.8%, Seoul41Eastman Chemical10,47623.6%, Kingsport, Tennessee42Johnson Matthey10,4122.48%, London43Air Products10,32316.6%, Allentown, Pennsylvania44Eurochem14,26922.6%, Zug45Borealis10,16426.0%, Vienna46PTT Global Chemical16,52151.7%, Bangkok47Sasol9,01110.8%, Johannesburg48Tongkun Group8,99628.5%, Tongxiang49Lanxess8,94023.8%, Cologne50Hengyi Petrochemical8,85866.8%, Hangzhou

Top fifty producers by sales (2018) RankCompany Chemical sales in 2018(USD millions) Change from 2017(percent) Headquarters1DowDuPont85,97737.6 Midland, Michigan, US2BASF74,0662.4 Ludwigshafen, Germany 3Sinopec69,21022.4 Beijing, China 4Sabic42,12012 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 5Ineos36,9702.1 London, UK 6Formosa Plastics36,89113.8 Taipei, Taiwan 7ExxonMobil Chemical32,44313.1 Irving, Texas, US 8LyondellBasell Industries30,7838.7 Houston, Texas US/ Rotterdam, Netherlands 9Mitsubishi Chemical28,7477.1 Tokyo, Japan10DuPont25,93537.6 Wilmington, Delaware, US 11LG Chem25,6379.7 Seoul, South Korea 12Reliance Industries25,16737.3 Mumbai, India 13PetroChina24,849n/a Beijing, China 14Air Liquide24,3222.8 Paris, France 15Toray Industries18,6518.7 Tokyo, Japan 16Evonik Industries17,7554.2 Essen, Germany 17Covestro17,2733.4 Leverkusen, Germany 18Bayer16,85949 Leverkusen, Germany 19Sumitomo Chemical16,0818.7 Tokyo, Japan 20Braskem15,88517.7 São Paulo, Brazil 21Lotte Chemical15,0514.2 Seoul, South Korea 22Linde plc14,90030.3 Dublin, Ireland 23Shin-Etsu Chemical14,43910.6 Tokyo, Japan 24Mitsui Chemicals13,43211.6 Tokyo, Japan 25Solvay13,3533.7 Brussels, Belgium 26Yara12,92813.8 Oslo, Norway 27Chevron Phillips Chemical11,31024.8 The Woodlands, Texas, US 28DSM10,9517.4 Heerlen, Netherlands 29Indorama10,74721.2 Jakarta, Indonesia 30Asahi Kasei10,6548.1 Tokyo, Japan 31Arkema10,4185.9 Colombes, France 32Syngenta10,41312.6 Basel, Switzerland 33Eastman Chemical10,1516.3 Kingsport, Tennessee, US 34Borealis9,85210.2 Vienna, Austria 35SK Innovation9,71914.4 Seoul, South Korea 36Mosaic9,58729.4 Tampa, Florida, US 37Huntsman9,37912.2 The Woodlands, Texas, US 38Wanhua Chemical9,17214.1 Yantai, China 39PTT Global Chemical8,96915.7 Bangkok, Thailand 40Ecolab8,96411 Saint Paul, Minnesota, US 41Air Products & Chemicals8,9309.1 Allentown, Pennsylvania, US 42Westlake Chemical8,6357.4 Houston, US 43Lanxess8,505 -25.5 Cologne, Germany 44Nutrien8,13075.9 Saskatoon, Canada 45Umicore8,11327.1 Brussels, Belgium 46Sasol8,1104.2 Sandton, South Africa 47Tosoh7,8034.7 Tokyo, Japan 48Johnson Matthey7,57916.1 London, UK 49DIC7,2962 Tokyo, Japan 50Hanwha Chemical7,2733.3 Seoul, South Korea 51Celanese7,15516.5 Irving, Texas, US A.Some figures converted at 2018 average exchange rates of .00 = Brazilian, , , , , , , , , , and . B.Estimate by Chemical and Engineering News. C.Sales include a significant amount of non-chemical products. D.Chemical sales less administrative expenses and cost of sales.

Largest companies since 1988 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.

YearCompany Chemical sales(USD millions) 1988 Bayer 22,694 1989 BASF 17,122 1990 BASF 18,520 1991 ICI 18,127 1992 BASF 22,883 1993 Hoechst 16,682 1994 Hoechst 19,702 1995 BASF 22,030 1996 BASF 26,519 1997 BASF 27,047 1998 BASF 27,740 1999 BASF 31,250 2000 BASF 30,791 2001 Dow Chemical 27,805 2002 Dow Chemical 27,609 2003 Dow Chemical 32,632 2004 Dow Chemical 40,161 2005 Dow Chemical 46,307 2006 BASF 49,516 2007 BASF 65,037 2008 BASF 70,485 2009 BASF 54,817 2010 BASF 70,391 2011 BASF 85,603 2012 BASF 79,760 2013 BASF 78,615 2014BASF78,6982015BASF63,7492016BASF60,6532017BASF69,1952018DowDuPont85,9772019BASF66,4002020BASF67,5002021BASF92,982 A.Foreign currencies converted to USD using average exchange rates of that year.

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