The world’s largest producers, with factories in many countries, are BASF, Dow Chemical, shell, Bayer, ExxonMobil, DuPont, Saudi Basic Industries and Mitsubishi, as well as thousands of small companies.
In the United States, there are 170 major chemical companies. They have operations all over the world, with more than 2800 factories outside the United States and 1700 subsidiaries or subsidiaries overseas. Chemical production in the United States is $400 billion a year. American industry has a huge trade surplus, employing more than 1 million people in the United States alone. The chemical industry is also the second largest consumer of energy in manufacturing, spending more than $5 billion a year on reducing pollution.
In Europe, especially in Germany, the chemical, plastic and rubber sectors are one of the largest industrial sectors. In total, they have created about 3.2 million jobs for more than 60000 chemical enterprises. Since 2000, the chemical industry alone has accounted for two-thirds of the EU manufacturing trade surplus. The chemical industry accounts for 12% of the EU’s manufacturing added value.
The chemical industry has been developing rapidly for more than 50 years. The fastest growing area is the manufacture of synthetic organic polymers, which are used as plastics, fibers and elastomers. Historically and today, the chemical industry has been concentrated in three regions of the world, Western Europe, North America and Japan (triple). The European community remains the largest producer, followed by the United States and Japan.
Due to the changes of raw material supply and price, labor cost, energy cost, economic growth rate difference and environmental pressure, the traditional dominant position of ternary group countries in chemical production is being challenged. Growth in China, India, South Korea, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Nigeria, Trinidad, Thailand, Brazil, Venezuela and Indonesia have played an important role in the structural changes of the global chemical industry.
