Global Top 50 Chemical Companies for 2023: BASF Retains Top Spot, Seven Chinese Companies Make the List

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.

The top 50 chemical companies globally include 10 from the United States, 7 from Japan, 4 from Germany, 3 from the United Kingdom, and 2 from South Korea.

This year's sales threshold for the top 50 chemical companies was $9.7 billion, a slight increase of nearly $800 million from last year. Three companies had sales exceeding $50 billion, five had sales between $40 billion and $50 billion, five had sales between $30 billion and $40 billion, eight had sales between $20 billion and $30 billion, and twenty-five had sales between $10 billion and $20 billion.

The total sales of the top 50 chemical companies reached $1.2 trillion, an increase of 17% from 2021, mainly due to higher sales prices rather than increased production.

However, the profitability of chemical companies is not optimistic. Among the 42 companies that disclosed profit data, chemical profits declined by 7% compared to 2021, totaling $117.7 billion.

Fertilizer companies, on the other hand, saw a surge in sales and profits. For example, Yara, Nutrien, and Mosaic saw sales growth of 40% or more due to price increases, with profit growth exceeding 89%. CF Industries, Israel Chemicals, and OCI, all fertilizer companies, entered the top 50 chemical companies list for the first time due to the strong development of the international fertilizer market.