BASF regains lead in ICIS Top 100 Chemical Companies ranking

LONDON and NEW YORK, Sept. 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ICIS has announced its annual ICIS Top 100 Chemical Companies listing of global producers ranked by 2019 sales.  

This year, Germany's BASF regained the lead as the world's largest chemical company with sales of $66.6bn in 2019, a decline of 1.5% from 2018.

Coming in second was 2018's leader, China-based Sinopec with $63.2bn in chemicals sales, followed by US-based Dow in third with $43.0bn in revenues, US-based LyondellBasell in fourth with $34.7bn in sales and Saudi Arabia's SABIC in fifth with $32.5bn in sales.  

"2019 was a tough year for the global chemicals sector with declines in sales and profits almost across the board amid a manufacturing slowdown. This has been overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 which will hit results even harder," said Joseph Chang, Global Editor of ICIS Chemical Business.

The synchronized global manufacturing slowdown along with overcapacity in key chemicals markets made for a difficult 2019.

"The Top 100 companies generated revenues of $1.05 trillion in 2019 - down 4.9% on 2018 on a comparable, as reported, basis. The data show that 33 of the companies in this listing reported a fall in sales of more than 10%," said Nigel Davis, ICIS Insight Editor.

This compares to a robust 2018 where the ICIS Top 100 Chemical Companies generated combined sales of $1.2 trillion, up 10% from a year earlier. 

The ICIS Top 100 Chemical Companies ranking is available for download as a PDF here. 

Currency conversions to US dollars for the ranking are based on year-end 2019 exchange rates.

About ICIS: 

ICIS is a trusted source of intelligence for the global energy, chemical and fertilizer industries. We are a division of RELX, a FTSE 15 company with a market cap of £32.7 billion and an employee base of over 30,000 experts across 40 countries. 

At ICIS, we help businesses make strategic decisions, mitigate risk, improve productivity and capitalise on new opportunities. We make some of the world's most important markets more trusted and predictable by providing data services, thought leadership and decision tools. As a result of our unmatched global presence, we can deliver targeted connected intelligence to influence thousands of decisions across supply chains every single day. We shape the world by connecting markets to optimise the world's valuable resources. With a global team of more than 600 experts, ICIS has employees based in London, New York, Houston, Karlsruhe, Milan, Mumbai, Singapore, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Dubai, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Tokyo and Perth.

About Reed Business Information:

Reed Business Information is a fast-growth provider of information and analytics, solving critical problems for businesses globally. Our strong global products and services hold leading positions across a wide range of industry sectors including finance, agriculture, petrochemicals and aviation where we help customers make key strategic decisions every day. RBI is part of RELX, a global provider of information and analytics for professional customers across industries.

About RELX:

RELX is a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. The Group serves customers in more than 180 countries and has offices in about 40 countries. It employs over 30,000 people, of whom almost half are in North America. The shares of RELX PLC, the parent company, are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RELX. The market capitalisation is approximately £32.7bn, €36.7bn, $43.5bn.

Related Links:

ICIS: https://www.icis.com/explore/

ICIS Top 100 Chemical Companies: http://www.icis.com/pages/icis-top-100-chemical-companies

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