In 2014, the top 50 chemical companies’ sales totaled $961.3 billion, declining less than 1% from last year’s $965.1 billion. The loss was in line with falling chemical prices resulting from the drop in oil prices. In general, specialty chemical companies fared better than petrochemical firms. The combined operating income of the 44 public companies within the top 50 was $82.7 billion, increasing 3.8%. Profits grew 24.8% to $7.9 billion, with profit margins up 0.3% to 9.6%. Total capital spending of the 39 companies reporting it totaled $5.5 billion, declining 9.6% to account for 7.0% of sales. Combined R&D spending of the 26 companies reporting it was $2.4 billion, or 3.1% of sales, up 2.9%. The top five companies were BASF, Dow Chemical, Sinopec, SABIC and ExxonMobil, with chemical sales of $78.7 billion, $58.2 billion, $58.0 billion, $43.3 billion and $38.2 billion, respectively.

Source: Chemical &Engineering News