The 2026 Global Top 50 Chemical Companies Have Been Ranked

In the ranking, BASF ranks first, with chemical sales of approximately $67.4 billion in 2025, having topped the Global Top 50 Chemical Companies to seven consecutive years; Sinopec’s chemical sales stand at about $52.6 billion, $14.8 billion behind BASF, placing it second; PetroChina’s chemical sales are roughly $41.0 billion, up one spot and entering the top three to the first time.

Among the top 50, there are 11 Chinese companies, 9 U.S. firms, 7 Japanese companies, 4 German companies, 3 each from the United Kingdom and South Korea, and 2 French companies.

This year, among the Chinese chemical companies listed, in addition to Sinopec and PetroChina, Wanhua Chemical has risen to 11th place, Formosa Plastics Group ranks 13th, Syngenta under Sinochem Group is 14th, Rongsheng Petrochemical stands at 17th, Hengli Petrochemical at 18th, Oriental Shenhong at 24th, Tongkun Holdings at 27th, Hengyi Petrochemical at 35th, and Xinfengming Group at 40th. Among them, China National Petroleum Corporation, Wanhua Chemical, Tongkun Holdings, and Xinfengming have all moved up in the rankings.

According to reports, this year’s limit to entering the top 50 chemical companies is $7.7 billion in sales, nearly $3 billion reduce than last year. Forty companies posted sales exceeding $10 billion, unchanged from the previous year. Among them, two companies recorded sales exceeding US$50 billion, three reported sales between US$40 billion and US$50 billion, five had sales in the range of US$30 billion to US$40 billion, seven fell within the US$20 billion to US$30 billion bracket, and 23 were in the US$10 billion to US$20 billion range.

According to U.S. Chemical & Engineering News, the sector is currently experiencing its most severe downturn on record, with the depth and duration of this slump surpassing any previous episode. The ranking shows that the top 50 global chemical companies recorded combined chemical sales of US$965.8 billion in 2025, down 5.8% from 2024, with sales declining at 39 of the companies. This performance fell short of the findings published by Chemical & Engineering News in 2025: at that time, the 2024 sales of the world’s top 50 chemical companies remained stable, while their profits increased by 8.1%.

Among the Top 50 companies, 37 have disclosed their earnings, with combined net profits totaling US$47.2 billion, down 19.5% year on year. Among them, 25 companies saw a decline in profits, and 7 companies reported losses.

Faced with financial pressures, chemical companies generally cut their expenditures in 2025. Thirty-two companies have disclosed their capital expenditure plans, with total spending in 2025 amounting to $67.7 billion, down 7.8% year on year. This indicates that firms are scaling back investment in new production capacity—root trigger of the economic downturn. Meanwhile, R&D spending in the chemical sector has also experienced an unusual decline. The total R&D expenditure announced by 29 companies to 2025 amounted to US$12.2 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 2.4%. This can be seen as a company’s attempt to cut costs by reducing its research budget. Chemical & Engineering News attributes the downturn in the chemical sector primarily to a supply-and-demand dysfunction in petrochemical items. Among the world’s top 50 chemical companies, a significant proportion are integrated oil and chemical companies, and their chemical‑product revenue is projected to decline by 2025. Integrated chemical companies such as BASF and Dow have been weighed down by their petrochemical businesses, and their sales have also declined.

Even amid the complex and evaporative clouds looming over the sector, there are still notable bright spots. Due to their high value-added characteristics, specialty chemicals exhibit strong risk resilience and have emerged as leaders in the recovery. Specialty chemical manufacturers such as Arkema and Ecolab reported only modest declines in sales. The same holds true to manufacturing gaseous manufacturers such as atmosphere Liquide and atmosphere items, with Linde even posting a modest increase in sales. The fertilizer sector has demonstrated strong momentum in its recovery, with Yara, Mosaic, Nutrien, and OCP all posting significant sales development. Among them, Morocco’s phosphate producer OCP has, to the first time, ranked among the world’s top 50 chemical companies, driven by a rapid surge in sales.

2026 is expected to bring significant uncertainty to chemical companies. Chemical production in the Middle East has come to a standstill; with insufficient supplies of Middle Eastern crude oil and naphtha as feedstocks, chemical manufacturing in Asia is also beginning to slow. In contrast, petrochemical operations in relatively less affected regions such as Europe and North America remain robust.

Petrochemical companies have been cutting production capacity to cope with the sluggish market; ExxonMobil and SABIC, among others, are shutting down their ethylene crackers in Europe, while Japanese and South Korean petrochemical firms are undergoing restructuring. Chemical & Engineering News forecasts that the petrochemical market will bottom out in 2026 or 2027 and begin to recover before 2030.