Largest Chemical Companies Research Articles

Industry stuck on hazardous chemicals

A study by the Swedish environmental group ChemSec finds that most of the world’s largest chemical companies are taking “little or no action” to reduce their production of hazardous chemicals that are persistent in the environment. ChemSec assessed 54 chemical producers making any one of 116 compounds, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and carbon tetrachloride. ChemSec gave the companies a ChemScore of up to 48 points based on their hazardous chemical portfolio (up to 18 points); their development of safer chemicals and circular products (up to 12 points); their chemical management and company transparency (up to 12 points); and their responses to controversies, lawsuits, and regulation (up to 6 points). European chemical companies in general are improving and scored higher than those in North America, where performance is “stagnating,” while most Asian firms are “falling behind,” ChemSec found. The best performer globally was Thailand’s Indorama Ventures, a producer

BASF wins German hydrogen grant

The German government will give BASF $133 million toward the purchase and installation of a 54 MW electrolyzer that will supply the firm’s flagship chemical manufacturing site in Ludwigshafen, Germany, with 5,000 metric tons (t) of hydrogen and 40,000 t of oxygen annually. The project was selected from an open call for efforts to help kick-start the European Union’s hydrogen economy. BASF, the world’s largest chemical company, says the electrolyzer should be providing renewable hydrogen to the plant by 2025.

BASF, Dow feel supply chain impact

Two of the world’s biggest chemical companies, BASF and Dow, posted strong results for the third quarter as the world’s economy continues to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. But both firms, among the first chemical makers to report earnings for the period, say inflation and supply chain disruptions are starting to weigh on the industry. BASF reported a 42% increase in sales and a massive 160% earnings rise in the third quarter from the same period a year earlier, when governments worldwide were imposing lockdowns to stem the spread of COVID-19. Higher volumes were responsible for 6% of the sales rise and increased prices another 36%. But earnings at BASF, the world’s largest chemical company, declined 23% from the second quarter. “Our downstream businesses are still confronted with further rising raw material, energy, and freight costs,” BASF chairman Martin Brudermüller told analysts in a presentation Oct. 27.

Tackling diversity at Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings

Can a major Japanese company remain focused on the domestic market and operate as an old boys’ club? For Jean-Marc Gilson, the Belgian who took the helm at Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings in April, the answer is a resolute no. He’s making clear that it’s time to change how the company looks and operates and where it does so. “The share of women managers will rise to 30% during my term as CEO,” Gilson told reporters at a press conference last month, where he laid out his vision for Mitsubishi. Today, fewer than 7% of its managers are women. He also said the company needed to reduce the number of subsidiaries, adopt a more international outlook, and shed its system of seniority-based promotion. As Japan’s largest chemical company, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings has 54,000 employees and recorded nearly $30 billion in sales in its latest fiscal year. Structured as a conglomerate, it

Second-quarter earnings surge

Early results from two of the world’s largest chemical companies indicate that the industry is rebounding strongly from the COVID-19 pandemic and should maintain momentum for the rest of the year. Dow is the first major chemical firm to post full second-quarter results. The company’s sales vaulted 66.2% versus the same quarter last year, the quarter most impacted by the pandemic lockdowns. Earnings for the period hit $2.1 billion, versus a loss of $189 million in 2020. Sales increased 42.2% in the first half of 2021, while earnings increased 1,134.0%. BASF, the world’s largest chemical maker, posted preliminary results. Its sales increased by 55.8% in the second quarter and 33.0% in the first half. Earnings before taxes increased 942.0% in the quarter and 22.8% in the first 6 months. In a conference call with analysts on July 22, Dow CEO Jim Fitterling boasted of the “strongest quarterly earnings performance in

Carbon-capture projects proliferate

Large energy and chemical companies are increasingly looking to CO 2 capture and storage (CCS) to deal with the greenhouse gas generated by their operations. In Scotland earlier this month, the Acorn CCS project gained ExxonMobil as a customer and selected the advanced amines CCS firm Carbon Clean to provide carbon-capture technology. If it opens as planned in the middle of this decade, Acorn will store 5–10 million metric tons (t) of CO 2 per year from facilities at or near the Saint Fergus gas complex. The UK government has set a national carbon-capture goal of 10 million t per year by 2030. Acorn is a partnership between Shell, Harbour Energy, and Pale Blue Dot Energy. The chemical company Ineos and the oil refiner Petroineos have also signed on to the project. In France, the industrial gas firm Air Liquide, the chemical makers Borealis and Yara, and the oil companies

BASF to deepen cuts of carbon emissions

BASF has pledged to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions 25% by 2030 compared with 2018 and to cut them to zero by 2050. The German firm, the world’s largest chemical company, estimates that its pol...

Mitsubishi names Jean-Marc Gilson its next CEO

Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings has named Jean-Marc Gilson, a Belgian-born chemical executive, its CEO effective April 1, 2021. He will succeed Hitoshi Ochi, who plans to retire. Currently the CEO of Roquette, a French food and drug ingredient company, Gilson has held executive positions at Dow Corning and Avantor Performance Materials. He worked for 5 years in Japan for Dow Corning. Gilson will be the first foreign CEO of Japan’s largest chemical company. His appointment comes as other Japanese chemical firms act to diversify their boards and management. JSR, for example, elevated the American executive Eric Johnson to CEO in 2018. In an Oct. 23 video press conference, Gilson declined to specify changes he would make to Mitsubishi’s diversified portfolio. But he cited DSM as a model for portfolio transformation, noting that the Dutch firm—a major competitor of Roquette’s—has shifted from chemicals to food, nutrition, and health products over the past

Our ‘good neighbor’ Formosa Plastics: petrochemical damage(s) and the meanings of money

ABSTRACT Through its chronic pollution and recurrent explosions, the petrochemical industry is the source of constant damage for fenceline communities. Measures that might prevent or correct this damage are postponed with a local flow of money, a situation viewed through the prism of the different levels of damage, from chronic pollution to cancers and explosions. This article analyzes how a collective lawsuit launched against a petrochemical complex in Taiwan is challenging this economy. Formosa Plastics, the owner of the petrochemical complex, is one of the world’s largest chemical companies. Its ‘good neighbor’ policy includes a mix of political corruption, patronage care services and regular cash payments. Based on a four-year observation and in-depth interviews with the plaintiffs and other local sources, this article draws on the sociology of money to examine the ambiguous role of compensation in disputes over environmental and public health damage. I show that the search for justice and compensation nourishes a range of expectations. This includes, in proportion to the scope of the damage, a moral condemnation of the polluters and the prevention of further harm, in addition to economic assistance.

BASF aims for 30% women in leadership

BASF, the world’s largest chemical company, has set a goal of having 30% of its leadership positions held by women by 2030. At the end of 2019, 23% of BASF’s leaders were women, according to the co...

Predictors of overweight and obesity among employees of Sadara Chemical Company in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Rapid economic growth, improved living standards, and immense urbanization in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) have affected nutritional habits and physical activity. Recent increases in physical inactivity, sedentary behaviours, consumption of caloric-dense diets, and sugar-sweetened beverages have led to overweight and obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). This study's objectives are to 1) determine current prevalence of and risk factors for obesity, and 2) predict the probability of obesity among full-time employees of Sadara, the largest chemical company in KSA. In 2019, a written survey in both Arabic and English was administered to 505 Sadara employees randomly selected from five Sadara locations. A number of factors possibly associated with BMI were examined using Chi-Square test: age, physical activity, screen watching, childhood region, nationality, fat intake, sugar intake, family size, household income, and consumption of meal-replacement bars. Logistic regression was performed to compare the trends and predict conditional probabilities of obesity. The sample was 92% male, 61% Saudi, from the Eastern Province of KSA, with a mean age of 34 years. Employees aged 30–39 years were found to have 1.8 times greater odds for obesity than the youngest employees (below 30 years). More specifically, those aged 30–39, who grew up in the Eastern Province, who had low physical activity and long periods of watching electronic screens had the highest probability of obesity (more than 66%). Workplace wellness programs that focus on lifestyle habits could help reduce the high prevalence of overweight and obesity and associated NCDs in KSA.

Callery strikes out on its own

On Mars-Evans City Road outside Pittsburgh in rural Evans City, Pennsylvania, a sign informs drivers that litter cleanup is sponsored by BASF. True for 13 years, it’s no longer the case. Litter removal is now in the hands of Callery, the revived name for a chemical facility set back on that quiet stretch of road. BASF, the world’s largest chemical company, acquired Callery in 2003 from Mine Safety Appliances (MSA) with big plans to grow it, but in the end it achieved little. Now a small, stand-alone operation controlled by private investors, Callery is out to prove that growth is still very much possible. When BASF paid $65 million for Callery, its executives were no doubt intrigued by the unique Evans City site. Callery calls itself the world’s largest producer of both alkali metal alkoxides and specialty borane complexes. Both types of chemicals are typically used by Callery’s customers as

Aramco will buy Sabic for $69 billion

In a move that will instantly make it one of the world’s largest chemical companies, the Saudi state oil company Saudi Aramco is buying a 70% stake in the petrochemical maker Sabic from the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, for $69 billion. Aramco has been pushing into petrochemicals in recent years to diversify the Saudi economy away from crude oil exploration and export, especially given the expectation of slowing fuel demand in the coming decades. Late last year, Aramco pledged $100 billion toward petrochemical projects, including a proposed crude-to-chemicals complex in Saudi Arabia with Sabic. The company recently started up a $20 billion joint venture, Sadara, with Dow Chemical. H.E. Yasir Othman Al-Rumayyan, managing director of the Public Investment Fund, says the purchase “will introduce a strategic owner that can add consid Sabic had sales last year of $45 billion. It’s the world’s fourth-largest

BASF counts the cost of CO2

Climate change is the biggest challenge of our time, according to BASF’s chairman, Martin Brudermuller. While the chemical industry by its nature cannot do without carbon, an element that it emits in the form of a number of greenhouse gases, companies can at least manage it, he says. Now, BASF has unveiled a program to do just that. The firm, one of the world’s largest chemical companies, has pledged to stop increasing carbon dioxide emissions—even though it expects to increase chemical production by up to 50% through 2030. Brudermuller acknowledges that the strategy could be a financial burden, at least in the short term. “There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” he told journalists at a recent briefing on the new strategy at the firm’s headquarters in Ludwigshafen, Germany. But Brudermuller, who is also the firm’s chief technology officer, said it will be good for the company, and the

Plastics industry launches waste initiative

In what is being billed as the largest-ever effort of its kind, 28 companies have formed the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, which plans to invest up to $1.5 billion over the next five years on projects to keep plastic trash out of the ocean. The alliance includes some of the world’s largest chemical companies, including BASF, Dow Chemical, and LyondellBasell Industries, as well as consumer product giants like Procter & Gamble and Henkel. But critics say the industry should have acted on plastic waste sooner and that this effort by itself won’t solve the problem. The initiative launched with a sleek video presentation viewed on the web by more than 500,000 people its first day. It featured British television presenter Hannah Vaughan Jones in a roundtable discussion with CEOs such as Dow’s Jim Fitterling, P&G’s David S. Taylor, and LyondellBasell’s Bob Patel. “I think everyone agrees that plastic waste

Pacific National Industries, Inc.

Eric Walsh, newly promoted director of aviation for Pacific National Industries, Inc. (PNI), is one week away from having to make his very first presentation to the company's COO and CFO. PNI is one of the country's largest chemical companies, and maintained four aircraft and a team of flight and maintenance crewmembers to facilitate executive travel to and from the company's many plants and operating complexes. Walsh enters his new position and learns how badly the aviation division needs updating: the planes need refurbishment or replacement, the staff might need retraining, and PNI has just acquired a new company that comes with its own flight division—so Walsh also needs to figure out how that fleet factors into PNI's existing one, if at all. With only a week left to prepare for his meeting, Walsh must decide where to focus his presentation. Excerpt UVA-G-0646 Apr. 18, 2019 Pacific National Industries, Inc. Eric Walsh walked across the tarmac toward the flight operations building for Pacific National Industries, Inc. (PNI). He had flown PNI COO Dwight Daniels and senior vice president and CFO Meredith Ackerman back from the company's newly acquired agribusiness in Memphis, Tennessee. Daniels and Ackerman had spoken briefly about the meeting next week, wherein Walsh would present the strategic outlook for the flight department. That meeting was weighing heavy on Walsh's mind. He had been promoted to director of aviation following former director Kevin McNamara's retirement. McNamara had been comfortable with the status quo, and the department now needed a major overhaul, according to the results of an outside consulting report. The Company PNI was one of the nation's largest chemical companies, producing and marketing chemicals, fabricated fibers, explosives, propellants, and agricultural products. PNI's goods were used in a broad range of industries throughout the world. With 2018 sales expected to exceed $ 20 billion, PNI was ranked among Fortune's 200 largest US corporations. . . .

A new model for sponsored R&D

Jianmei Huang, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, is studying lead-free halide perovskites. Her work, in the lab of chemistry professor Peidong Yang, may lead to new lighting devices that avoid use of the toxic metal. BASF, the world’s largest chemical company, underwrites Huang’s research through the California Research Alliance (CARA). The four-year-old effort, centered at UC Berkeley and including nine other California schools, supports research at the intersection of cutting-edge science and commercial opportunity. Although Huang wants to pursue an academic career and not a corporate research role, she said she’s excited to participate in what could be a research breakthrough. “It’s so cool,” she added. Brylee David B. Tiu, a postdoc working in the lab of UC Berkeley bioengineering and materials science professor Phillip Messersmith, is about to file a patent on mussel-inspired adhesives. BASF’s CARA initiative supported his research, too, and scientists at the

Game Analysis of Market Entry of Small and Medium-sized Chemical Companies

In the chemical industry market, large chemical companies are usually the earlier market entrants, and small and medium-sized chemical companies are latter entrants to the market. Therefore, the question of how small and medium-sized chemical companies enter the market and survive in competition is worth studying in depth. This paper uses the game theory of Stackelberg oligopolistic competition to construct a market entry game model for small and medium-sized chemical companies. Through the model derivation, it is found that the decisive factor for whether small and medium-sized chemical companies enter the chemical industry market or not is the fixed cost they need to pay for entering the market, its market share after they entering the market and whether they can increase consumer surplus determine whether the government will provide support.

Crystallography in the globe's largest chemical company

Crystallography in the globe's largest chemical company

U.S. tax reform bill would benefit manufacturers

Tax reform legislation proposed by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives would boost large chemical companies and other U.S.-based multinationals. But research universities, teaching assistants, and those with student loans would lose key benefits under the plan to enact the first major overhaul of the U.S. tax system in more than 30 years. The introduction of the bill (H.R. 1) on Nov. 2 is an “important step toward modernizing our nation’s tax code,” says the American Chemistry Council, the chemical industry’s largest U.S. lobbying group. The GOP blueprint includes numerous provisions sought by manufacturers, such as a sharp cut in the current corporate tax rate of 35%, one of the highest in the world, to 20%. The change is designed to make taxes on U.S.-based multinationals more competitive in global markets. In addition, companies with worldwide operations would have a one-time opportunity to bring home trillions of dollars in