Sinopec Tops ICIS Top 100 Chemical Companies Ranking

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Sep 03, 2019, 07:22 ET

LONDON and NEW YORK, Sept. 3, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- ICIS has announced its annual ICIS Top 100 Chemical Companies listing of global producers ranked by 2018 sales.

This year, China's Sinopec vaulted into the number one spot as the world's leading chemical company with sales of $79.5bn in 2018, a 25% increase from 2017. The break-up of last year's top company, US-based DowDuPont, into three separate firms paved the way for the new leader.

Germany-based BASF came in second with 2018 sales of $71.8bn, followed by US-based Dow with $60.3bn. Saudi Arabia-based SABIC took the number four slot with $42.2bn in revenue, and US-based LyondellBasell was in fifth with $39.0bn.

"There were dynamic shifts in the ICIS Top 100 Chemical Companies ranking, with capacity additions, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), spinoffs and currency playing major roles," said Joseph Chang, Global Editor of ICIS Chemical Business.

2018 saw sales growth but profit gains were hard to come by, especially with US-China trade war headwinds emerging in the latter part of the year, which contributed to massive destocking in the fourth quarter.

"Sales growth was certainly healthy, but the average decline in operating profit of 8% illustrates the margin pressure encountered by many producers in the difficult second half," said Nigel Davis, ICIS Insight Editor.

The companies in the ICIS Top 100 Chemical Companies listing generated combined sales of $1.2 trillion in 2018, up by 10% from a year earlier.

The ICIS Top 100 Chemical Companies ranking is available for download as a PDF at http://www.icis.com/pages/icis-top-100-chemical-companies

The ICIS Top 100 Chemical Companies series of special reports runs over three consecutive weekly issues of ICIS Chemical Business. The September 6 issue will feature the geographic leaders in North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East & Africa. The September 13 issue will highlight the ICIS Company of the Year based on financial metrics.

Currency conversions to US dollars for the ranking are based on year-end 2018 exchange rates.

About ICIS:
ICIS is the world's largest petrochemicals market information provider, with divisions spanning energy and fertilizers. Our aim is to give companies in global commodities markets a competitive advantage by delivering valuable information and analytics tools which enable our customers to identify and react to opportunities in markets which are constantly evolving. We have more than 30 years' experience of providing pricing intelligence and news, forecast data, market analytics and independent consulting to buyers, sellers and analysts. With a global staff of more than 600, ICIS has employees based in London, Houston, New York, Singapore, Dubai, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Mumbai, Tokyo, Karlsruhe, and Milan. ICIS' team of journalists is engaged in reporting market prices and news, and ICIS is fully committed to upholding the highest journalistic principles of verification, corroboration and authentication. ICIS has a compliance framework that along with its methodologies and business processes adheres to the requirements of the IOSCO PRA Principles. ICIS is a division of Reed Business Information, part of RELX.

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. http://www.reedbusiness.com

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 £38.6bn, €42.6bn, $47bn.

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