On July 22, Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) of the United States released the "2025 Global Top 50 Chemical Companies". BASF, Sinopec, and Dow remained firmly in the top three positions. PetroChina rose to the fourth place, with a gap of less than 200 million US dollars from Dow. A total of 11 Chinese enterprises made the list, the same number as last year.
BASF ranked first, with chemical sales of approximately 70.6 billion US dollars in 2024; Sinopec's chemical sales were about 58.1 billion US dollars, 12.5 billion US dollars behind BASF, ranking second; Dow's sales were around 43 billion US dollars, taking the third place.
The Chinese chemical companies on this year's list are still the same as those from last year. In addition to Sinopec and PetroChina, Formosa Plastics ranked 11th, Syngenta under Sinochem Group ranked 13th, Rongsheng Petrochemical ranked 14th, Wanhua Chemical ranked 15th, Hengli Petrochemical ranked 18th, Oriental Shenghong ranked 23rd, Tongkun Holdings ranked 30th, Hengyi Petrochemical ranked 35th, and Xinfengming Group ranked 44th. Among them, the rankings of PetroChina, Wanhua Chemical, Tongkun Holdings, and Xinfengming have increased.
Among this year's top 50 chemical companies, 11 are from China, 10 from the United States, 7 from Japan, 4 from Germany, 3 from the United Kingdom, and 2 from South Korea.
The threshold for entering this year's top 50 chemical companies is 8 billion US dollars, a decrease of nearly 400 million US dollars compared with last year. There are 40 companies with sales exceeding 10 billion US dollars, 2 fewer than last year. Among them, 2 companies have sales exceeding 50 billion US dollars, 3 companies have sales between 40 billion and 50 billion US dollars, 6 companies between 30 billion and 40 billion US dollars, 7 companies between 20 billion and 30 billion US dollars, and 22 companies between 10 billion and 20 billion US dollars.
The global chemical industry nearly stagnated in 2024. The combined chemical sales of the world's top 50 chemical companies reached $1.014 trillion, almost flat compared with the previous year. Given that sales fell 10.7% year-on-year in 2023, this is a positive signal for the industry.
Another positive sign is profitability. Among the top 50 companies, 37 disclosed profit data. Their total profits in 2024 reached $56.8 billion, an increase of 8.1% compared with 2023. In contrast, total profits in 2023 plummeted 44.1% from 2022.
Data shows that senior executives of chemical companies are increasingly confident about the prospects. Among the top 50 companies that disclosed relevant data, capital expenditures in 2024 increased 3.5% year-on-year to $73 billion, and R&D budgets rose 3.0% to $12.3 billion.
However, some chemical companies are reducing their operational scale, especially in Europe. High energy and other costs have made European petrochemical production particularly vulnerable to the industry downturn. For example, LyondellBasell sold four olefins and polyolefins assets in Europe; Dow is closing siloxane, ethylene and chlor-alkali plants in Europe and is considering strategic options for its European polyurethane chemicals business, among other moves.
Chemical companies in Asia are also feeling the pressure and undergoing restructuring. Japan's Resonac Holdings plans to spin off its petrochemical business, and Mitsubishi Chemical Group is selling its pharmaceutical business to focus on specialty chemicals. Nevertheless, the market prospects for specialty chemical manufacturers may be improving. Asahi Kasei's profits grew by more than 100%, and the profitability of Mitsubishi Chemical, Mitsui Chemicals, Resonac, Shin-Etsu Chemical, Sumitomo Chemical and Toray Industries also improved in 2024.
It is reported that C&EN ranks companies annually based on their publicly disclosed chemical sales from the previous fiscal year and releases the rankings. In addition, C&EN revises the previous year's rankings based on factors such as exchange rates.
