C&EN’s Global Top 50 chemical firms for 2026

 

Chemical company executives have been calling the period the industry is now navigating the worst downturn in a generation, a trough that is deeper and longer than any in recent memory. Sales and earnings figures for C&EN’s Global Top 50 chemical makers bear them out.

Total chemical sales for the 50 companies appearing in the survey were $965.8 billion in 2025, the year on which the survey is based, a 5.8% drop from 2024. Thirty-nine of the firms posted declines in sales.

Chemical operating profits for the 37 companies that broke out such numbers were $47.2 billion, a 19.5% drop. Earnings declined at 25 of the companies. Seven lost money.

The performance is a downgrade from the survey C&EN published in 2025, when 2024 sales for the Global Top 50 were flat and profits increased 8.1%.

Feeling the pinch, companies tightened their pocketbooks in 2025. The 32 companies that reported capital expenditures—the amount spent on property, plants, and equipment—posted a combined $67.7 billion. It’s a drop of 7.8% and evidence that companies are easing investment in new capacity—the sort of spending that helped create the downturn in the first place.

Similarly, the 29 firms that disclosed R&D spending reported total expenditures of $12.2 billion, a decrease of 2.4%. The year-over-year decline, a rarity for the industry, can be taken as a sign that executives are looking even to research labs to save money.

The industry slump is mostly due to overcapacity in petrochemicals. And petrochemical makers compose a large portion of the Global Top 50, especially near the top. In the top 10, Sinopec, PetroChina, Sabic, and LyondellBasell Industries all saw chemical revenues slip in 2025. All four firms also posted earnings declines, and Sinopec suffered a steep loss: $2.8 billion.

Diversified chemical makers such as BASF and Dow also posted lower sales, largely because of their petrochemical businesses.

Forecasters say the petrochemical market will hit bottom in 2026 or 2027 and recover by the end of the decade. Petrochemical companies have been doing their part by cutting capacity. Firms such as ExxonMobil and Sabic are shutting ethylene crackers in Europe, where the slump’s impact has been the most keenly felt. The industry is also restructuring in Japan and South Korea. Companies in China, which have been growing like gangbusters in recent years, may close smaller, older facilities through the state-sponsored anti-involution policy, which is meant to rein in excessive competition.

The chemical industry does have bright spots. Specialty chemical makers such as Arkema and Ecolab reported only slight declines in sales. The same is true for industrial gas makers like Air Liquide and Air Products and Chemicals. The gas firm Linde managed to eke out a modest sales increase.

Fertilizers mounted a comeback. Sales increased sharply at Yara, Mosaic, Nutrien, and OCP. That last firm, a Moroccan producer of phosphates, made the Global Top 50 for the first time on its surge in sales.

How 2026 will play out for chemical producers is difficult to predict. The industry started the year stunted by the petrochemical downturn. But the war in Iran and the resulting closure of the Strait of Hormuz led analysts to throw their forecasts out the window.

Chemical production in the Middle East ground to a halt, and production in Asia slowed for lack of Middle Eastern oil and naphtha feedstocks. Business boomed in less affected areas like Europe and North America. If the war really does end soon, it will likely take at least the rest of the year for the chemical industry to get back on track—and that track wasn’t very smooth to begin with.

 

 

BASF leads the Global Top 50 for the seventh consecutive year, but its lead is shaky. In October, the German chemical conglomerate agreed to sell a majority stake in its coatings business, a large supplier of automotive paints, to Carlyle and the Qatar Investment Authority in a deal valued at $8.9 billion. The unit generated $4.2 billion in sales in 2025. The paint business is not the only divestiture in BASF’s future. The company classifies two businesses as “standalone” and no longer core. One of them is agrochemicals, which generated sales of about $10.8 billion; BASF is planning an initial public stock offering of this business in 2027. Another is surface technologies, which has $10.1 billion in sales and houses the firm’s battery materials and emissions catalysts units. The catalyst unit has been a strong performer for BASF lately, and in October it said it would keep the unit longer than it had originally expected. The firm has also reduced costs in battery materials, a sign that it may keep the business. BASF hasn’t only been downsizing. Earlier this year, the company started up an ethylene cracker in Zhanjiang, China, the centerpiece of its new, $12.0 billion petrochemical complex there.

 

 

As China’s largest petrochemical maker, Sinopec sits at the epicenter of the production capacity glut that has caused the global industry’s deepest downturn in a generation. The government-owned company’s petrochemical business generated a loss in 2025. In a letter to shareholders (PDF), Sinopec chairman Hou Qijun writes that, in the face of adverse market conditions, its chemical segment is focusing on “business optimization, cost control, and market expansion.” Sinopec’s projects in China include new ethylene crackers in Maoming, Zhenhai, and Henan, as well as aromatics complexes in Jiujiang and Fujian. Sinopec is also building an ethylene cracker and downstream polyethylene plants in Kazakhstan. In a step away from petrochemicals, Sinopec formed a partnership with South Korea’s LG Chem to develop materials for sodium-ion batteries. While Sinopec is standing firm on expansion, Ineos, its British partner in a new ethylene cracker joint venture in Tianjin, China, is not. Ineos is in negotiations with Sinopec to divest its stake, citing “continuing weak market conditions.” 

 

 

Controlled by the Chinese government, PetroChina is investing heavily in new capacity. It completed new cracker complexes at its Jilin Petrochemical and Guangxi Petrochemical affiliates that cost a total of nearly $9.0 billion and brought PetroChina’s ethylene capacity to more than 10 million metric tons (t) per year. And the company has more projects in the works. Its Dushanzi Petrochemical subsidiary is building an ethylene cracker in western China that will use locally sourced ethane as feedstock. That plant, which will have annual output of 1.2 million t, will cost about $3.0 billion. Additionally, a specialized polyolefin project at PetroChina’s Blue Ocean New Materials subsidiary will cost $1.6 billion.

 

 

ExxonMobil has edged out—by only $12.0 million in sales—Dow as the largest US-based chemical maker. Overall, however, ExxonMobil’s recent theme has been about scaling back. In a casualty of Europe’s sharp slump in petrochemicals, the company announced late last year that it would close an ethylene cracker in Fife, Scotland. ExxonMobil had tried unsuccessfully to sell the unit and decided that it could not overcome high costs and poor economic conditions. The firm had earlier closed a cracker in France. Also in Europe, ExxonMobil stopped work on two plastics recycling plants it was planning in Belgium and the Netherlands. The firm made this decision in light of proposed European Union rules that would restrict mass-balance accounting for such plants. In the US, ExxonMobil put a proposed $8.6 billion petrochemical complex in Calhoun County, Texas, on the back burner, blaming market conditions. It also paused a low-carbon hydrogen project in Baytown, Texas, because of lack of demand.

 

 

Dow has bid farewell, at least in the CEO role, to Jim Fitterling, who had led the company since it separated from DowDuPont in 2019. He had previously run the materials science division of DowDuPont—which would become the new Dow—for nearly 2 years. Before the Dow-DuPont merger in 2017, Fitterling was Dow’s chief operating officer. Karen S. Carter, who has been with Dow since 1994, most recently as chief operating officer, succeeded him on July 1. During his tenure, Fitterling pursued a robust agenda of decarbonization. For example, under his leadership, Dow launched an ethylene cracker project in Alberta that will use carbon capture and storage to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The company also aims to install a modular nuclear reactor to supply electricity, heat, and steam to its Seadrift, Texas, plant. The recent petrochemical industry downturn has been rough on Dow, particularly in Europe, where it was forced to shutter an ethylene cracker and other assets. Earlier this year, Fitterling announced that Dow would cut 4,500 jobs, about 13% of its workforce, as part of a plan to boost earnings by $2 billion. The move is in addition to a $1 billion restructuring program launched in 2025. Fitterling will remain with Dow as executive chair of the board.

 

 

Linde’s strong results demonstrate that industrial gases is one sector of the chemical industry that appears immune from the boom and bust of the business cycle. While many petrochemical firms are experiencing sales and profit slumps, Linde saw a healthy rise in both those measures. The German firm even racked up a 27.2% operating profit margin in 2025. One reason the sector is so healthy is that purified elemental gases like oxygen and hydrogen are needed by industries as diverse as chemicals, steel, and health care. For Linde, space exploration is a bustling new market. The company is expanding a facility in Florida to supply gases for rocket launches and is building an air separation plant in Texas to supply oxygen for space exploration and other uses. Last year, the company commissioned helium storage caverns in Texas.

 

 

Activist investors have been a catalyst for reform at US companies for decades. In recent years, managers at Asian firms have also become acquainted with these demanding shareholders. South Korea’s LG Chem was in one such conflict with Palliser Capital, which owns a 1% stake in the petrochemical and battery materials maker. Palliser’s main complaint is that the value of LG’s assets exceeds its valuation on the stock market by about $40 billion. A related critique is that LG Energy Solution, a battery business that LG Chem spun off in 2022, is more than three times as valuable as LG Chem itself. Palliser is seeking improvements in corporate governance. It is also prodding LG Chem to liquidate some of its stake in LG Energy Solution. Palliser’s proposals did not pass at LG Chem’s annual meeting in March, but the shareholder was encouraged about the support it did get from a majority of LG’s minority shareholders, a sign that there is some desire for reform.

 

 

Earlier this year, the Saudi Arabia–based petrochemical maker agreed to sell its European petrochemical business to Aequita—the same private firm that is buying several plants from LyondellBasell Industries—for just $500 million. The business is a relic of Sabic’s expansiveness in the 2000s, when it was flush with cash from making chemicals cheaply in its home country and bought the assets from DSM and Huntsman. But in recent years, Sabic has struggled in Europe with high costs and low selling prices. The business lost $1.4 billion on $3.6 billion in sales in 2025. The company has also announced the closure of ethylene crackers in the Netherlands and England. Similarly, Sabic is selling its engineering plastics business in Europe and the Americas to another private company, Mutares, for $450 million. That business, acquired as part of Sabic’s purchase of GE Plastics in 2007, makes polycarbonate, polybutylene terephthalate, and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene resins. It generated about $1.8 billion in sales in 2025 but lost more than $500 million.

 

 

The French industrial gas firm suffered a setback last August when, by a decree from Russian president Vladimir Putin, the company’s assets in Russia were brought under the control of a provincial administration. Though no reason was given, the seizure was probably related to French support for Ukraine in its war with Russia. Air Liquide, which had $700 million invested in the country, had been looking to divest from Russia. Elsewhere, the firm is investing. In Louisiana, it plans to spend $350 million on an air separation unit and other equipment. Some portion of the gases will go to a low-emission electric arc furnace that Hyundai-Posco is planning for producing steel for Hyundai and Kia automobiles. And taking advantage of the artificial intelligence and data center boom, Air Liquide has opened a semiconductor materials plant in Taiwan.

 

 

LyondellBasell Industries made a significant step in its streamlining plan last year by signing a deal to unload four of its underperforming European facilities to the industrial turnaround firm Aequita. The sale includes ethylene cracker complexes in France and Germany, as well as polypropylene plants in England and Spain. LyondellBasell is essentially giving Aequita $300 million to take the facilities off its hands, though it will share in any profits from the business. LyondellBasell will also avoid losses and $125 million in annual maintenance expenses from the aging plants. Aequita will run the plants as part of a new company called Velogy, which will have about $2.9 billion in annual sales. Aequita is also buying Sabic’s European petrochemical business. LyondellBasell maintains a footprint in Europe, primarily through its site in Wesseling, Germany. The company expects to complete a plastics recycling plant that uses its MoReTec catalytic pyrolysis technology in 2027.

 

 

The Chinese polyurethane giant had a big year in 2025. It brought on line 730,000 metric tons (t) per year of polyether polyol capacity at its site in Penglai, China. The expansion brings Wanhua Chemical Group’s total capacity for the polyurethane intermediate to 2.3 million t per year, making it one of the world’s largest polyol producers. Wanhua is already the world’s largest producer of two other polyurethane intermediates, methylene diphenyl diisocyanate and toluene diisocyanate (TDI). The company added to its lead in TDI with a 360,000 t unit in Fujian, China, that it completed last August. Wanhua has also been adding to its nonpolyurethane businesses. It completed a 1.2-million-metric-ton-per-year ethylene cracker in Yantai, China. It has also been expanding in battery materials such as lithium iron phosphate cathod and graphite anodes.

 

 

Recently Jim Ratcliffe, Ineos’s chairman and founder, warned that his company’s Project One, under construction in Antwerp, Belgium, could be “Europe’s last investment in the Petrochemicals industry.” The project, based on an ethylene cracker that will source feedstock ethane from the US, was hooked up to the electrical grid in April. But Project One is an outlier in Europe, where chemical firms, including Ineos, have been closing plants because of high costs. For example, last year Ineos announced it would shutter epichlorohydrin and chlorine plants in Germany. And like LyondellBasell Industries and Sabic, Ineos is divesting European assets. Its Inovyn vinyls division is selling sites in Italy to the Italian chemical maker Esseco Industrial. Ineos has been a loud advocate for European governmental support of the chemical industry. The company recently won $354 million from the French government for upgrades to its site at Lavera, France, and $200 million from the UK government to maintain its Grangemouth, Scotland, site, which is poised to be the last ethylene cracker in Britain after closures by ExxonMobil and Sabic.

 

 

A presentation by Formosa Petrochemical, Formosa Plastics’ petrochemical affiliate, for the first quarter of this year, paints a dire picture of the petrochemical industry in Asia due to overcapacity. Asian chemical producers—mostly in China—brought 6.7 million metric tons (t) of ethylene capacity on line in 2025 and expect to start up another 6.6 million t this year. This new capacity represents roughly 6% of global output. The operating rate of Formosa’s ethylene facilities in Taiwan has been abysmal, sinking to 53% during the first quarter—about 30% below what is considered healthy. Formosa’s proposed $9.4 billion ethylene project in Louisiana still appears to be active after languishing for about a decade because of local opposition. In February, a group of environmental organizations sued the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality to block the extension of a preconstruction permit for the site, which is in St. James Parish. Separately, Formosa’s US subsidiary started up a polypropylene line in Texas in September.

 

 

The Swiss agrochemical firm, owned by the Chinese conglomerate Sinochem Holdings, is rolling out the new herbicide Virestina (metproxybicyclone), an ACCase (acetyl-CoA carboxylase) inhibitor, for use against grass weeds that are resistant to glyphosate and clethodim. The weed killer has been approved in Argentina, and Syngenta is seeking approval from Australia, Brazil, Canada, and the US. At the same time, the company is winding down production of paraquat in Huddersfield, England. The product, which has been linked to Parkinson’s disease and is the subject of opposition from environmental groups, accounts for less than 1% of Syngenta’s sales. To develop new crop protection chemicals, Syngenta is partnering with the quantum computing firm QuantumBasel to model chemical and biological interactions.

 

 

Reliance Industries’ strategy of creating a “virtual pipeline” for cheap ethane from the US is paying off for the Indian chemical giant. Chemical producers in Asia predominantly crack more-expensive petroleum-derived naphtha to produce petrochemicals. In the late 2010s, Reliance built ethylene capacity based on ethane imported from the US via ship. The company says the profit margin in its region for ethane-based ethylene was $283 per metric ton (t) last year, while for naphtha it was a mere $45. Reliance has about $10 billion in projects in the works. They include plants for making polyethylene terephthalate, polyvinyl chloride, and raw materials for both polymers.

 

 

Japan’s largest chemical maker is trimming its portfolio. In May, Mitsubishi Chemical Group announced that it is considering spinning off its petrochemical business. The company says the move will help it merge the unit with that of other Japanese petrochemical producers seeking to consolidate as the country grapples with overcapacity overseas. Mitsubishi embarked on a similar strategy in 2021 but abandoned it in favor of more modest improvements. In addition, after concluding that the drug business was no longer a good fit with its chemical operations, the firm sold Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma to the private equity firm Bain Capital last year for $3.3 billion. The company is also exiting the coke business. In addition, Mitsubishi’s polybutylene succinate joint venture in Thailand with PTT Global Chemical ended production in December. Mitsubishi says the specialty polymer operation suffered from low profitability and disappointing market conditions.

 

 

Like many petrochemical firms struggling through the cyclical downturn, Rongsheng Petrochemical experienced a sales decline in 2025—of 9.1%. Two big projects in basic and specialty chemicals might help the Chinese private sector chemical maker get back on a growth trajectory. Rongsheng’s $5.8 billion investment at its Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical affiliate will entail plants to make acrylonitrile, adipic acid, hexamethylenediamine, nylon 6,6, α-olefins, ethylene vinyl acetate, polyolefin elastomers, and other chemicals. The company is also spending about $9.4 billion on its new materials project in Jintang. It will build plants for phenol, acetone, propylene oxide, polycarbonate, acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene resin, and ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene, among others. 

 

 

In April, Hengli Petrochemical got into a row with the US government, which had placed sanctions on the Chinese firm over alleged “billions of dollars’ worth” of oil purchases from Iran. Hengli, which operates a massive refining and petrochemical complex in Dalian, China, denies the claims. Hengli is one of the private sector chemical companies in China that has experienced heady growth in recent years. It has a number of projects in the works, including a $1 billion butanediol plant with 600,000 metric tons of annual capacity and various polyester film expansions. Hengli has also been focusing on efficiency. Its Hengli Refining and Chemical affiliate recently conducted 114 improvement projects that saved it more than $100 million annually.

 

 

After a big wave of investment in the 2010s and early 2020s, new petrochemical projects have mostly dried up in the US. Undeterred, Shintech, the US chlorovinyl subsidiary of Japan’s Shin-Etsu Chemical, unveiled a plan earlier this year to spend $3.4 billion to build an ethylene cracker, as well as chlor-alkali and vinyl chloride plants, in Plaquemine, Louisiana. The project aims to back integrate existing polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production, which Shintech expanded in 2024. Shintech expects to complete the project in 2030—possibly in time for a recovery in the US housing market, a big source of demand for pipe and other PVC-containing construction materials.

 

 

Evonik Industries had it tough last year as sales declined by 7.2% and profits slipped by 4.5%. To help turn things around, the company plans to cut 3,200 jobs, about 10% of its total, by the end of 2029. It is also shutting down its polyester business. Longer term, Evonik is preparing for organic growth. It is investing $94 million in its fermentation plant in Slovakia, where it makes biopolymers, proteins, and small molecules. Last year, the company commissioned a line in Slovakia that makes silk protein in a process developed by the start-up AMSilk.

 

 

The Norwegian fertilizer producer posted strong results in 2025 that allowed it to climb from number 28 to number 21 in the Global Top 50. Sales rose 12.7% and profits more than doubled as urea prices climbed in a tightening market. Despite the strengthening business conditions, Yara and BASF canceled their plans to build a low-carbon ammonia plant on the US Gulf Coast. Originally announced in 2023, the blue ammonia project would have made the fertilizer from natural gas while capturing and storing carbon dioxide emissions. It was to have a capacity of 1.4 million metric tons (t) per year. Yara has other options. It is developing a blue ammonia project in Texas with Enbridge with 2.8 million t of annual capacity. In addition, Yara inked an agreement to purchase green ammonia, made from hydrogen produced using renewable power, from Air Products’ project in Neom, Saudi Arabia.

 

 

While many chemical makers, particularly in Japan, are preoccupied with industry overcapacity and consolidation, Toray Industries remains focused on growing its product pipeline through R&D. For example, the company announced earlier this year that it has developed a biobased process to make 2-pyrrolidone, which is a raw material for the solvent N-methylpyrrolidone, the clarifying agent N-vinylpyrrolidone, and the biodegradable polymer polyamide 4. Toray also developed a polyester fiber filament with a diameter of just 1 µm. The fine fiber helps impart a soft texture and feel to fabric. Toray also unveiled a high-temperature piezoelectric polymer for demanding vibration-detection applications. And for biopharmaceutical makers, the company introduced a membrane module that it claims offers four times the filtration performance of competing membranes.

 

 

XRG, the international investment arm of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., completed its $16.3 billion purchase of Covestro, a German polyurethane raw materials and polycarbonate maker, in December. XRG also helped form the petrochemical maker Borouge International earlier this year through the merger of Borouge, Borealis, and Nova Chemicals. Covestro also is also making an acquisition of its own. Last August, it agreed to buy from the bankrupt firm Vencorex plants in Rayong, Thailand, and Freeport, Texas, that produce derivatives of the aliphatic isocyanate hexamethylene diisocyanate. Covestro also completed a 20% expansion of its toluene diisocyanate plant in Shanghai. In June, Covestro unveiled plans to build a new methylene diphenyl diisocyanate plant in China. It is also considering a similar unit for the United Arab Emirates.

 

 

With an integrated refining and petrochemical complex boasting 16 million metric tons (t) per year of capacity, plus other chemical production based on coal and natural gas, Jiangsu Eastern Shenghong is one of the up-and-coming petrochemical producers in China’s private sector. In its most recent annual report, however, the company says China’s massive petrochemical capacity buildup is “nearing its end” (PDF). Citing the National Bureau of Statistics, the report says fixed asset investment in chemicals declined by 8.0% in 2025. It also notes that China’s anti-involution policy, meant to root out excessive competition, should effectively curb “low-end capacity additions” and promote “high-quality development towards high-end, large-scale, and integrated capacity.” Jiangsu Eastern Shenghong has large-scale projects of its own under construction. For example, it is spending about $500 million to build a 1 million t per year acetic acid plant. It is also shelling out about $350 million on what it calls a high-end polyolefin unit.

 

 

Indorama Ventures has seen the business climate turn against its core business of polyethylene terephthalate fibers and polymers in recent years. China’s massive capacity buildout of polyester and its raw materials has swamped the Thai firm. Other recent events, such as the oil price escalation and logistics disruptions from wars in Ukraine and Iran, have not helped either. Commenting on the situation, Indorama founder and CEO Aloke Lohia writes in the company’s 2025 annual report (PDF): “What we are witnessing is not simply a cyclical downturn but a profound structural reset in the chemicals industry.” Indorama has been cutting back; this year alone it announced that it is closing a tire cord yarn plant in France and a polyester raw material unit in Thailand.

 

 

Because of overcapacity in Asia, South Korea’s Lotte Chemical has racked up losses in its basic chemical business every year since 2022. That, plus a program by the South Korean government to streamline the country’s chemical sector, has prompted restructuring initiatives at Lotte. The company is combining its petrochemical operations in Daesan, South Korea, with those of HD Hyundai Chemical. Similarly, the company is consolidating its Yeosu, South Korea, petrochemical operations with those of Hanwha Solutions and DL Chemical. Lotte is also investing in specialty chemicals. A massive expansion of engineering polymer compounding capacity is in the works. It is also increasing by 35% capacity to make tetramethylammonium hydroxide, used during semiconductor photolithography.

 

 

Global overcapacity isn’t slowing this Chinese polyester fiber producer. Last year, Tongkun Holding Group completed the first phase of a $1.5 billion project to build 1.2 million metric tons (t) of annual capacity for ethylene glycol, a raw material for polyester. Tongkun already has about 13.5 million t of polyester filament capacity and is launching a $780 million project to expand by another 1.2 million t. Longer term, Tongkun and Xinfengming are partnering to build an integrated refinery and petrochemical complex in Indonesia, dubbed Taikun Petrochemical, that has a projected cost of nearly $6 billion.

 

 

After a protracted process, Braskem’s majority owner, Novonor, has reached an agreement to sell its stake in the firm. IG4 Capital will acquire 50.1% of Braskem’s common shares and a 34.3% interest in the company overall in exchange for its holdings of Novonor’s debt. Novonor has been trying to sell its Braskem shares since it received hefty fines over its involvement in Brazil’s “Car Wash” political corruption scandal nearly a decade ago. Over the years, LyondellBasell Industries and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. have weighed acquiring control of Braskem, Brazil’s largest petrochemical maker. Like many companies, Braskem has suffered from the global petrochemical downturn, and it has been looking to restructure its debt and improve its competitiveness. To that end, it will spend $800 million to expand its lowest-cost petrochemical complex, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, by about 40%.

 

 

More than a year ago, Chevron executives told stock analysts that they were willing to buy out the firm’s partner, Phillips 66, in their Chevron Phillips Chemical joint venture. No deal has yet been reached, but Chevron is still interested. “We would like more exposure to the sector,” Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said in a conference call with analysts in January, but “you’ve got to have two people that want to do a deal.” In the meantime, Chevron Phillips has been growing. The company’s Golden Triangle Polymers joint venture with QatarEnergy—an $8.5 billion project in Texas to make ethylene and polyethylene—is due to start up in 2027. The partners are building a similar facility in Qatar.

 

 

Sumitomo Chemical is consolidating in businesses that are under threat by a huge wave of production capacity in China. The Japanese chemical maker is merging its polypropylene and linear low-density polyethylene operations into Prime Polymer, an existing joint venture between Mitsui and Idemitsu Kosan. Mitsui will own 52% of Prime Polymer, Idemitsu will own 28%, and Sumitomo will hold 20%. Sumitomo is closing a production line in Japan that makes lithium-ion battery separators and moving output to South Korea. But Sumitomo is expanding in electronic materials, where it sees a strong long-term outlook. Late last year, it agreed to acquire Asia Union Electronic Chemical, which operates plants in Taiwan and Nevada that make ultrapure chemicals for semiconductor fabrication. On the research front, Sumitomo has begun testing a process for producing propylene from ethanol without an ethylene intermediate.

 

 

Mosaic derives most of its sales from its phosphate fertilizers. Thus, Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has hit the US company hard. Sulfuric acid is needed to process phosphate rock, and nearly half the world’s seaborne supply of sulfur goes through the strait. Since the war began at the end of February, sulfur prices have more than doubled from levels that were already high. In response, Mosaic is cutting phosphate production in Louisiana, Florida, and Brazil. The company also plans to sell its potash mine in Brazil. At the same time, Mosaic is branching out into new lines of business. It is pursuing a partnership with Rainbow Rare Earths to extract rare earth elements from a phosphogypsum mine in Brazil.

 

 

Air Products and Chemicals’ partnership with ACWA Power to build an $8.4 billion green hydrogen project in Neom, a futuristic city planned for Saudi Arabia, is more than 90% complete. The project is one of the most ambitious currently underway in the chemical industry. It includes a solar farm the size of Manhattan and 257 wind turbines to generate a total of 3.8 GW of power. This electricity will run water electrolysis plants to make enough hydrogen for 1.2 million metric tons (t) per year of ammonia. The Norwegian fertilizer maker Yara has signed on to market some portion of the ammonia in Europe. In June, Air Products cancelled a project to build a hydrogen and ammonia complex in Louisiana that would have used carbon capture and storage to reduce CO₂ emissions from natural gas based production. The move is part of a strategic retrenchment that saw the company pull out of low-carbon hydrogen projects in 2024 and 2025.

 

 

Over the years, Sibur, Russia’s largest chemical maker, has cultivated a robust R&D capability. In February, the company disclosed plans to lean heavily on artificial intelligence. For instance, it plans on using AI to determine relationships between chemical structure and physical properties, virtually screen catalysts, and optimize synthesis conditions. In addition, it has been testing new metallocene catalysts for polyethylene production. And next year, Sibur expects to complete construction of a chromium-based catalyst facility in the Republic of Tatarstan. Sibur suffered a tragedy in March when an explosion at its large complex in Nizhnekamskneftekhim, Russia, killed 12 workers, according to local reports. The company blamed equipment failure at a synthetic rubber unit.

 

 

In reaction to a severe market downturn brought about by a deluge of new capacity in China, the Japanese petrochemical industry has been consolidating, and Mitsui Chemicals has been at the nexus of this change. With Asahi Kasei and Mitsubishi Chemical, it is forming a joint venture that will allow the two other firms to close their ethylene plant in Mizushima, Japan, and consolidate production at Mitsui’s site at Osaka. Mitsui has similar plans with Idemitsu Kosan that are to be implemented in 2027. Idemitsu will close its cracker in Chiba and consolidate production at Mitsui’s nearby site. To boost its specialty chemical business, Mitsui has acquired Ketjen’s stake in Nippon Aluminum Alkyls, a producer of alkyl aluminum molecules used in catalysts. In June, Mitsui agreed to acquire Ultradent Products, a maker of teeth-whitening and other dental materials, for $900 million.

 

 

Hengyi Petrochemical has given the go-ahead to two massive projects so far this year. The private sector Chinese chemical maker plans to expand its refining and petrochemical complex in Brunei by 12 million metric tons (t) per year, to 20 million t of capacity. In addition to fuels, the $13.8 billion project will expand output of chemicals such as benzene, p-xylene, and polypropylene. Separately, to be less dependent on imported oil, Hengyi will spend $3.8 billion on a coal-to-chemical complex in Xinjiang, in western China, that will have an ethylene glycol capacity of 2.4 million t per year. Last year, Hengyi finished building a 1.2-million-metric-ton-per-year caprolactam and nylon facility in Qinzhou, China.

 

 

Bayer’s crop science business continues to be dominated by glyphosate, an herbicide it acquired with its 2018 purchase of Monsanto. A few recent developments may limit the company’s liability related to the chemical, which is used in Roundup weedkiller. In February, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order calling for greater US production of glyphosate and elemental phosphorus, a raw material for glyphosate. The order, under the authority of the Defense Production Act, may shield Bayer from lawsuits. In March, a court in Missouri approved a $7.25 billion class action settlement with plaintiffs who claim that Roundup is linked to their non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The company is also party to a US Supreme Court case, Monsanto v. Durnell, that recently determined that pesticide makers are not liable under state laws requiring product warnings that differ from federal regulations. Amid the legal trouble, Bayer has submitted applications in the US, European Union, Brazil, and Canada for icafolin-methyl, a new herbicide. It is also extending a partnership with Ginkgo Bioworks to develop microbes that fix nitrogen for crops to potentially reduce the need for fertilizers.

 

 

Nutrien is trimming assets to focus on its core potash and nitrogen fertilizer businesses. The US company is looking to sell its phosphate business, which generates about $2 billion in annual sales. Producing 1 metric ton of phosphate fertilizer requires about the same amount of sulfur, CEO Kenneth Seitz said during a recent conference call with analysts. Nutrien is also exploring the sale of its facility in Trinidad—its largest ammonia plant, where production shut down last year because of restrictions on port access and a curtailment of natural gas feedstock supply. The company is in the process of selling its soybean seed business in Brazil. And in December, it sold its 50% stake in the Profertil nitrogen fertilizer joint venture in Argentina to the agricultural firm Adecoagro for $600 million.

 

 

The French specialty chemical maker posted a 5% decline in sales and a 43% drop in earnings. Combating this trend, Arkema is making a minor adjustment to its portfolio. It is selling a Dutch plastics impact modifier and processing aid business to Praana, a firm based in India. The unit had $52 million in sales in 2024. Separately, Arkema has been bolstering specialties. The French firm is partnering with the start-up Catalyxx, which has a biobased route to n-butanol, to develop biobased acrylic resins.

 

 

DSM-Firmenich, created through the merger of DSM and Firmenich in 2023, is making one final deal that will leave it focused on human nutrition, health, and beauty products. Earlier this year, it signed an agreement to sell its animal nutrition and health business, which makes vitamins and feed additives, to the private equity firm CVC Capital Partners for $2.6 billion. The business generates about $4.0 billion in annual sales for DSM-Firmenich. When the deal for the animal business closes it will be split into separate specialty and commodity ingredient firms, and DSM-Firmenich will hold a 20% stake in each. The Dutch-Swiss firm sold its 50% interest in an animal feed enzyme business to its partner, Novonesis, last year. In June, the company’s ultraviolet filter for sunscreens, bemotrizinol, was approved for use by the US Food and Drug Administration.

 

 

Xinfengming Group chairman Zhuang Yaozhong is poetic when he describes in his annual address the troubles the Chinese petrochemical industry has been facing because of overcapacity. “This is the worst of times, where countless shattered dreams float in a red ocean of prices,” he writes. The polyester fiber company has better times in its sights long term. It is teaming up with another Chinese petrochemical producer, Tongkun Holding Group, to build a $6 billion integrated refinery and petrochemical complex in Indonesia.

 

 

Under new CEO Scott Richardson, Celanese is staging something of a comeback after a tough period. Earlier this year, the US firm sold its Micromax ink and paste business to the specialty chemical formulation specialist Element Solutions for about $500 million. It is closing a nylon 6,6 polymerization plant in Singapore and reducing nylon 6,6 output at plants in Virginia and West Virginia. The company expects these moves to save it about $30 million annually. The savings will be on top of $120 million in cost cuts in 2025. In response to supply chain snarls caused by the war in Iran, Celanese restarted production in Germany at a vinyl acetate plant sooner than it had planned and commissioned a vinyl acetate ethylene emulsion reactor.

 

 

OCP, a phosphate miner and phosphate fertilizer producer based in Morocco, debuts in C&EN’s Global Top 50 this year. Like rivals such as Mosaic and Nutrien, the firm posted strong results in 2025 that were due to much-improved market conditions. OCP started up two new production lines for triple superphosphate last year. Triple superphosphate requires less sulfur to produce per unit of nutrient than other phosphate fertilizers, the company says. The timing of the new lines was fortuitous given that the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has pinched the global market for sulfur. In addition, OCP is exploring the extraction of sulfur from pyrite and pyrrhotite to be less dependent on sulfur made as a by-product of oil refining.

 

 

Japan’s Resonac Holdings took a big step toward spinning off its petrochemical business as Crasus Chemical in April when it filed an application to list it on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Resonac will keep a less than 20% stake in Crasus, but without the business’s roughly $2 billion in annual sales on its books, Resonac will probably depart the Global Top 50. The company is also trimming elsewhere as it aims to focus more on electronic materials. It is cutting about 700 jobs and closing sites in China and Malaysia that make graphite electrodes for the steel industry. And last year, Resonac sold its F2 Chemicals subsidiary, which makes fluorinated chemicals in England, to the private equity firm Rcapital Partners.

 

 

Eastman Chemical is one of the few companies making significant money in plastics recycling. The US firm runs a methanolysis facility in Tennessee, where it breaks down polyethylene terephthalate into dimethyl terephthalate and ethylene glycol. Eastman uses these molecules to make specialty polyesters. The company says the plant has been running without interruption and will generate $30 million in earnings in 2026. But Eastman’s burgeoning recycling business suffered a setback last year when the US Department of Energy pulled a $375 million grant for a second methanolysis plant Eastman had been planning for Texas. Eastman estimated the total cost of that second plant at $1.2 billion. The company says it will instead expand the Tennessee plant by about 30% to keep up with demand. Separately, Eastman cut costs by about $100 million in 2025 and aims to cut another $125 million–$150 million in 2026.

 

 

Overcapacity has inundated the Japanese petrochemical industry. At a recent press conference, Asahi Kasei executives told reporters that operating rates at ethylene crackers in the country were only 70%, far below the 90% needed to maintain profitability. As a result, Asahi Kasei has decided to scale back. The company will end production of polyolefins and styrene in Mizushima, Japan, by the end of the decade. It will also halt acrylonitrile and polycarbonate diol manufacturing at the site, transferring output to plants in South Korea and China. Additionally, Asahi Kasei will form a joint venture with Mitsubishi Chemical and Mitsui Chemicals. The plan is to close an ethylene plant in Mizushima, Japan, owned by Asahi Kasei and Mitsubishi and consolidate production at Mitsui’s site in Osaka. And last year, Asahi Kasei announced that it would end production of the nylon intermediate hexamethylenediamine by 2027. Apart from the woes in Japan, the company is delaying the construction of a $1.1 billion battery separator plant in Ontario by up to 2 years because of slow adoption of electric cars. In some positive news, Asahi Kasei is investing $110 million to double capacity for photosensitive polyimides, used in semiconductor manufacturing, in Fuji City, Japan.

 

 

Long a mainstay of the Global Top 50, Borealis will soon disappear from the ranking. In March, the Austrian firm merged with Nova Chemicals and Borouge, its joint venture with Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC), to form Borouge International. The new firm, owned by ADNOC’s XRG investment arm and the Austrian refiner OMV, will have about $20 billion in sales this year, which should put it in the top half of next year’s survey. In a setback for Borealis, last August the company canceled plans to build a mechanical plastics recycling plant in Austria. European recyclers have been struggling because of high operating costs and imports of cheap virgin and recycled resins.

 

 

Because of a downturn in two of its key markets, petrochemicals and solar materials, South Korea’s Hanwha Solutions needs to shore up its finances. Its board approved a measure in March to raise $1.7 billion in a stock offering. It will use the proceeds to pay down debt and foster long-term growth. The company is making cuts as well. It has divested some $1.1 billion in assets, including equity stakes in affiliates and idle land at its complex in Yeosu, South Korea. It has also raised $500 million by issuing bonds. One of Hanwha’s long-term investments will be a $70 million pilot line to make perovskite tandem solar cells. The firm hopes to later invest $560 million in commercial production of the cells.

 

 

Sasol is considering spinning off its international chemical business by the end of the decade or when petrochemical industry conditions improve. In recent years, Sasol has been emphasizing specialty materials. For example, it is investing $69 million to expand alumina production in Brunsbüttel, Germany. It plans to make surfactants from oil extracted from black soldier fly larvae instead of palm and coconut oil. With the engineering firm Topsoe, Sasol is planning a plant in Leipzig, Germany, to make sustainable aviation fuel from biogenic carbon dioxide and low-carbon hydrogen. In commodity chemicals, Sasol is reopening an n-paraffin plant in Italy to counter the supply chain disruption caused by the war in Iran. n-Paraffin is a raw material for making the surfactant linear alkyl benzene. 

 

 

The chemical business of the London-based oil company is a shadow of its former self after the sale of its Singapore refining and chemical complex to Chandra Asri Capital and Glencore Asian Holdings last year. The complex had been losing money. When Shell announced its 2025 earnings earlier this year, CEO Wael Sawan complained about its chemical business’s poor performance. “Fixing and repositioning this business is a key priority in 2026,” he said. In one vote of confidence in chemicals, the company is building an ethylene cracker in China with China National Offshore Oil. And Shell is benefiting modestly from the booming data center industry. Last year, Intel approved Shell’s hydrocarbon immersion fluids to cool its Xeon processors. Shell has long made immersion fluids for electrical transformers and electric vehicles. 

 

 

The water treatment firm Ecolab squeaked into the Global Top 50 this year largely because of fading sales of companies in the petrochemical industry. Ecolab is positioning itself to take advantage of the artificial intelligence boom and the buildout of data center capacity. In December, it paid $1.8 billion for the electronics water division of Ovivo, which produces ultrapure water for semiconductor manufacturing. And in March, Ecolab agreed to buy CoolIT Systems for $4.75 billion. CoolIT sells liquid cooling systems for data centers, a booming business as data centers get bigger, faster, and hotter.