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'' Chemical & Engineering News'' publishes an annual list of the world's largest chemical producers by sales, excluding formulated products such as

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s. 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, DowDuPont, the result of the 2017 merger between Dow Chemical and

DuPont DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...

, became the world's top chemical producer ending BASF’s 12-year reign as the largest chemical company in the world. However, in April 2019, DowDuPont then split into three separate firms—Dow, DuPont, and Corteva Agriscience. In 2018, more than half of the companies on the list were headquartered in the United States (10), Japan (8) or Germany (5); 18 countries in total were represented. 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)

: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 a 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. :A.Foreign currencies converted to USD using average exchange rates of that year.

References

{{reflist Chemical industry Chemical Economy-related lists of superlatives