Chemicals

In 2012, chemical spending by the world’s top 50 chemical firms fell 1.8% to $961.8 billion, following a 13.7% increase. BASF, Dow Chemical and Sinopec maintained their positions as the largest chemical firms, although the firms’ sales were down 21.7%, 2.1% and 98.6%, respectively. Total operating profits from the 46 firms that reported them fell 15.8% to $87.4 billion, following a 13.9% increase. Operating profit margins fell to 9.8% from 11.5%. R&D spending grew 1.1% to $12.7 billion at the 26 firms that reported such figures, and R&D as a percentage of sales increased from 2.5% to 2.6%. DuPont, Bayer and Shin-Etsu Chemical spent the most on R&D as a percentage of sales, investing 7%, 5% and 4% of sales in R&D, respectively. Capital spending jumped 17.0% to $49.9 billion at the 41 firms that reported it. As a percentage of sales, capital spending increased from 5.5% to 6.3%. The three firms with the highest capital spending as a percentage of chemical sales were PotashCorp, Praxair and Air Products & Chemicals, with capital spending accounting for 27%, 19% and 17% of sales, respectively.

Source: Chemical & Engineering News

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