Major players jostle for position in ICIS Top 100 annual listing

12 September 2011 09:00  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS)--The top five chemical companies retain their positions in the global league table ranked by sales in the latest edition of the ICIS Top 100, published on Monday.

Germany’s BASF heads the league table, which provides extensive financial data on the leading producers of chemicals. A sales gain in local currencies of 26.0% last year places it firmly in first position with a turnover of $84.65bn. Dow Chemical of the US comes in second with sales of $53.67bn in 2010, up 19.6%.

The chemicals operations of US-headquartered energy giant ExxonMobil, is global number three - 2010 sales of $53.64bn, up 30.9% -  followed by the chemicals businesses of China’s Sinopec ($48.73bn, up 50.2%) and the Netherlands-based olefin and polyolefin producer LyondellBasell ($41.15bn, up 33.5%).

There are minor changes in position in the top 10, with Saudi Arabia’s SABIC and Netherlands-headquartered energy giant Shell swapping places compared with 2009, and Switzerland-registered INEOS and US-based DuPont doing the same.

Conversely, major gains in the rankings, largely on enhanced portfolios, were made by producers including Braskem, Styron and CF Industries.

The rankings, sponsored by global chemical distributor DKSH, highlighting the significant gains made by commodity chemical producers in 2010 compared with 2009 on sharply improved volumes and prices, and the major gains made by producers from the Middle East and fast-growing emerging markets.

“An exceptional year by any standards, 2010 delivered at the end more than most chemical companies dared for at the start,” ICIS says in its annual analysis. “Still in recovery mode, the sector produced returns well above expectations.”

The Top 100 chemical players generated a total of $1,230bn (€932bn at 31 December 2010 exchange rates) of annual sales in 2010, up by more than 20% on 2009.

The top five chemical companies produced sales of $282bn in 2010 and the top 10 sales of $466bn. The top 10, of those that reported the data, earned close to 42% of the net profit total of the Top 100.

Annual sales were up 22.1% in local currencies for the 100 companies, operating profits 2.3 times higher and operating margins up 1.8 times. The ICIS analysis shows that net profits for the Top 100 were up 1.7 times.

Company	Rank 2010	Rank 2009	Sales	Change	Change
			2010 ($m)	(%)*	(%)**
BASF	1	1	84,651	26.0	16.5
Dow Chemical	2	2	53,674	19.6	19.6
ExxonMobil	3	3	53,636	30.9	30.9
Sinopec	4	4	48,725	50.2	55.3
LyondellBasell Industries	5	5	41,151	33.5	33.5
SABIC	6	7	40,525	47.4	47.4
Shell	7	6	39,629	43.8	43.8
Mitsubishi Chemical	8	8	38,241	25.9	40.9
INEOS	9	10	34,561	37.2	26.8
DuPont	10	9	31,505	20.7	20.7

*reporting currency; ** US dollars

By: Nigel Davis
+44 20 8652 3214

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