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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 pharmaceutical drugs and coatings. In 2014, sales of the top fifty companies amounted to US$961,300,000,000, an decrease of 0.4% compared to the top fifty producers of 2013. The American Chemistry Council estimated that global chemical sales in 2014 rose by 3.7% to US$5,389,000,000,000.
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BASF was the world's largest chemical producer for the ninth year in a row. More than half of the companies on the list were headquartered in the United States (twelve), Japan (eight) or Germany (six); eighteen countries in total were represented.
Forty-four of the companies on the list disclosed chemical profits, which totaled US$82,700,000,000, an increase of 3.8% from 2013. The average profit margin for these companies was 9.6%.
The top fifty producers in 2014 by sales
A.^ Some figures converted at 2014 average exchange rates of US$1 = R$2.3512, £0.6066, CN¥ 6.16, €0.752, ₹61, ¥105.74, ₩1,052.29 , kr 6.2969, ر.س 3.75, CHF 0.9147, NT$30.229, and ฿32.461. B.^ Sales include a significant amount of non-chemical products. C.^ Estimate by Chemical and Engineering News.The largest companies before 2014
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, 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.