Dupont, Dow and ExxonMobil lead annual company ranking
The annual Chemical & Engineering News ranking of top U.S. chemical producers puts DuPont in the number-one spot with more than $27.6 billion in chemical sales in 1999. Dow Chemical is second with $18.6 billion, followed by ExxonMobil with nearly $16 billion. Overall, chemical sales of the top 75 chemical producers were up more than ten percent over the previous year, nearly double the 5.6 percent growth rate in the 1999 U.S. gross national product, according to the May 1 issue of the weekly magazine, which does the yearly rankings based on chemical sales.
The magazine, published by the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society, cites rising oil prices as one reason for the upswing in the sales figures. "As oil prices more than doubled in 1999, they pushed up prices for downstream chemical products," according to the magazine.
Mergers continue to have an impact on the profits and rankings, says the magazine. "Number-two Dow will be neck and neck with DuPont following its pending merger with Union Carbide."
The most "startling change" to the rankings was the movement of Huntsman Corp., a Utah-based, privately held company, that "leapfrogged Union Carbide and General Electric to gain the fourth slot, with $8 billion in chemical sales." Through a series of acquisitions, Huntsman has moved steadily upward in the rankings, says the magazine. It was number 42 in 1989.
An accompanying article in the magazine notes that chemical mergers and acquisitions hit a new high last year, with a value of $38.2 billion, up from a record high of $37.3 billion in 1998.
A nonprofit organization with a membership of 161,000 chemists and chemical engineers, the American Chemical Society publishes scientific journals and databases, convenes major research conferences, and provides educational, science policy and career programs in chemistry. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
http://www.acs.org