Largest Chemical Companies Research Articles

Drumroll please ... DowDuPont emerges

Dow Chemical and DuPont completed their merger last Thursday, Aug. 31, after the stock market closed, to form DowDuPont, the world’s largest chemical company by sales. But DowDuPont won’t be here for long. Managers’ ultimate goal is to split the new firm into three separate companies within 18 months. Dow and DuPont combine for nearly $73 billion in annual sales. On the basis of recent stock prices, DowDuPont has a market capitalization approaching $150 billion. DowDuPont’s stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol DWDP on Sept. 1. The company replaces DuPont in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, continuing chemical industry representation in the stock index. When the merger was first announced in December 2015, the companies expected to complete their deal in the second half of 2016, but an in-depth investigation by European Commission antitrust regulators delayed it. Regulators worried that the combined strength

A historic week

Last week, a hurricane of historic proportions devastated many cities on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. Although it is too early to get a full picture of the destruction that Hurricane Harvey has caused, as C&EN went to press we already knew that the number of deaths has risen to at least 38. The area is critical for the U.S. chemical industry. Most of the region’s chemical and petrochemical plants shuttered temporarily to prevent damage by the hurricane, but these prevention measures were not successful in every case. On page 4 we report that on Aug. 31, explosions occurred at a plant owned by Arkema, one of the world’s largest chemical companies. The facility, which manufactures organic peroxides used in making plastics and other materials, had been inundated with water and left without power since Sunday. Without the constant cooling required to prevent unintended decomposition of those peroxides, Arkema

Japanese firms reap benefits of closures

After a mixed performance in the first half of the year, most large Japanese chemical companies reported higher profits for the fiscal year that ended March 31. The companies credited improved economic conditions in the U.S. and Europe as well as decisions to internationalize operations while shutting loss-making plants. Net earnings nearly tripled to $582 million at Mitsui Chemicals, a company that is focused mostly on the production of basic chemicals for the Japanese market. Mitsui cited the positive impact of “an optimized domestic production system and efforts to maintain stable operations at full capacity.” The firm recently closed urethane and phenol facilities in Japan. Mitsubishi Chemical did even better than Mitsui by more than tripling its net earnings. The company said the improvement was due mostly to the lower-than-expected cost of exiting its purified terephthalic acid business in India and China last year. Profit margins in the company’s polymer

Net Loss? Agrochemicals and Insecticide Resistance in the Fight against Malaria.

Net Loss? Agrochemicals and Insecticide Resistance in the Fight against Malaria.

Moody’s cautions European chemical firms over deals

Many European chemical makers have had their fill of acquisitions, according to Moody’s. The credit ratings agency says that after a spate of large acquisitions, a few chemical makers won’t be able to make any further acquisitions in the next 12 to 18 months without risking a credit downgrade. But companies may be tempted to make acquisitions anyway, according to Francois Lauras, Moody’s vice president and senior credit officer. “Pressure to continue acquisitions to boost future revenue and earnings growth is intense as firms struggle to grow organically post-2008,” he says. Large chemical companies that made big deals recently include Solvay, Evonik Industries, and Lanxess. However, Moody’s says a handful of other firms, including AkzoNobel, Covestro, and Arkema, have the balance sheets to make acquisitions without hurting their credit.

German firm claims new route to methanesulfonic acid

The German chemical company Grillo-Werke says it has mastered a reaction that has long eluded chemists: the direct combination of methane and sulfur trioxide to yield the strong acid methanesulfonic acid (MSA). Following years of research, Grillo says, its scientists came up with a tailored reaction environment and specific activators that overcome methane’s limited reactivity. The reaction temperature is between 30 and 60 °C, and the pressure is moderate, the firm says. It plans to build a large-scale facility, likely at its Frankfurt site, by 2019. Today, MSA occupies a small niche in the industrial acid world. BASF, the world’s largest chemical company, is the world’s largest producer, operating a 30,000-metric-ton-per-year plant at its headquarters in Ludwigshafen, Germany. The company says it is evaluating the possibility of a second MSA plant following the 2013 cancellation of a large complex in Malaysia that would have included one. However, BASF employs a

Knowledge Management at Tata Chemicals, Mithapur

This case describes the knowledge management (KM) initiatives at the level of a unit of one of the largest chemical companies in India. The unit, Tata Chemicals Ltd, Mithapur, has a unique knowledge base accumulated over generations of experiments, trials, and errors. It is in the midst of implementing a rejuvenation plan that has created opportunities for external knowledge assimilation and new knowledge generation. With details on the initiatives for knowledge collection, sharing, measurement of performance and the systems for rewards and recognition, the case provides an opportunity to the participants of a programme on Knowledge Management to analyze the initiatives and make recommendations for the future to the head of Knowledge Management function at the company. The participants would be able to map the realm of knowledge management in an organization and discern - how KM initiatives contributed to the transformation of the organisation from manufacturing centred mind-set to customer focused one.

Cheap oil hits BASF

The low cost of oil—currently about $37 per barrel—is dealing BASF, the world’s largest chemical company and an oil and gas producer, a series of financial challenges. The firm’s 2015 profits fell 22.7% to $4.5 billion on sales of $79.5 billion, down 5.2%, largely because of the low oil price and slowing growth in China’s economy, Kurt Bock, BASF’s chairman, said at the firm’s recent financial results briefing. If the oil price dips below $30 per barrel, BASF will experience a further decline in profits, Bock said. Oil’s collapse has also forced the firm to reconsider plans to build a major methanol-to-propylene plant in Freeport, Texas. “If the price of oil is low, then it is very competitive against this natural gas process,” Bock said of the proposed plant’s technology. The firm will decide whether to go ahead with the project by the end of June. BASF says it would

Cheaper Oil, Yen Boost Japan

Large Japanese chemical companies reported better profits in the first half of the fiscal year that ends on March 31, 2016. Several of them credited the weakening yen and cheaper crude oil prices for the improvement. Restructuring moves undertaken by Japanese firms in recent years also contributed. For example, Teijin, a synthetic fibers and advanced materials producer that reported a loss a year ago, now boasts a net profit margin of 6.2%. The company’s electronic materials and performance polymers business, which lost money a year ago, has turned around, partly owing to strong sales of p-aramid fibers to the auto industry. The company said it benefited from lower costs for raw materials and fuels. Sumitomo Chemical, a producer of basic chemicals, agrochemicals, and electronic materials, will boost its dividend to shareholders after nearly tripling its net earnings, even though its sales flagged. Sumitomo explained that sales shrank because of a ...

The Race To Replace Ineos’s Barex Resin

Ineos’s announcement a year ago that it would shutter its Barex plant in Lima, Ohio, was every bit as unassuming as press releases disclosing small chemical plant closings normally are. The announcement gave a few key facts, such as the firm’s plan to close the plant in the first quarter of 2015. It also offered the usual excuses. David Schmidt, head of the Barex business, noted that Ineos struggled in vain against deteriorating financial circumstances to keep the Barex business afloat and promised customers an “orderly” closure. Yet Ineos’s departure has been anything but orderly. Barex may be an obscure plastic compared with polyethylene or nylon. It is certainly a backwater of a business for Ineos, one of the world’s largest chemical companies. But Ineos was the only supplier of a resin critical to the pharmaceutical packaging industry. The sector was left scrambling to do in mere months what it ...

Sustentabilidade organizacional: aplicação de índice composto em uma empresa do setor químico

Este trabalho tem como objetivo propor a aplicação de um índice composto para mensuração da sustentabilidade organizacional em uma indústria química brasileira multinacional e avaliar sua importância como ferramenta de gestão. O estudo é baseado na metodologia desenvolvida por Krajnc & Glavič (2005), que propõem um Índice Composto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável – ICDS, gerado pela agregação de vários indicadores das dimensões econômica, ambiental e social, com o propósito de acompanhar o desempenho em termos de sustentabilidade de uma determinada empresa. Os indicadores relacionados aos temas considerados estratégicos para a empresa, após seleção, são normalizados, ponderados e agregados, constituindo três subíndices para, finalmente, serem associados e gerar um indicador global. O método foi aplicado na empresa Braskem, a maior empresa química brasileira, em que o índice composto foi calculado utilizando-se os indicadores reportados pela empresa por quatro anos, conforme diretrizes da Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), para relatórios de sustentabilidade. A ponderação dos indicadores foi subsidiada pelos macro-objetivos da visão da empresa, sendo que os indicadores considerados estratégicos receberam pesos comparativamente maiores. Os resultados da aplicação do modelo foram considerados satisfatórios, pois, além de fornecer números parciais de desempenho para cada dimensão avaliada, demonstrou-se que a ferramenta apresentou grande flexibilidade nas etapas de seleção, ponderação e normalização dos indicadores, possibilitando sua aplicação em diferentes contextos e empresas.

Innovation policy of European chemical companies with special focus on large companies

According to Arora et alii (1998), the chemical industry is one of the largest and most R&D-intensive manufacturing sectors in all the advanced economies, and its innovative patterns and productivity growth processes can have profound impacts on economic growth as a whole. The European chemical industry supplies virtually all sectors of the economy and accounts for 17.8% of the total sales of chemicals in the world. This paper gives an overview of the European chemical industry and the changing scenario of the world chemical industry by focusing on the top fifteen chemical companies in Europe. It describes the current problems this industry is facing in Europe especially after the economic crisis and shows that the region and the top companies are investing in R&D to bring about innovation and overcome the current challenges. It shows that R&D spending in absolute terms has hardly changed over the years and that the industry is still globally the largest investor in R&D activities. In terms of R&D, BASF has made the greatest investment followed by Bayer and Syngenta, while R&D intensity is highest for Syngenta and Bayer. BASF and Bayer have made most patent applications and have also had the highest number of patents granted. The quality of research in most chemical companies is very high and most of the large European companies make their first patent application in Europe rather than elsewhere. All the large chemical companies use Merger & Acquisition (M&A) to gain access to innovation. Industry-academia collaboration is one way to generate innovation in the chemical industry in Europe. Chemical clusters and the geographical distribution of chemical companies play a significant role in generating innovation.

Fine Chemicals BASF to sell custom synthesis and API businesses to Siegfried

BASF says it plans to sell its custom synthesis business and part of its active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) business to Siegfried Holding, the Swiss parent company of the drug chemical producer Siegfried. The deal, involving manufacturing sites in Germany, Switzerland, and France, will affect about 850 employees. Siegfried will pay BASF $306 million. The acquisition will increase Siegfried’s sales by roughly 50% to $955 million. BASF, the world’s largest chemical company, says it wants to focus its API and services operations within its nutrition and health division, and will retain generic API businesses only where it holds a leading market position. These include ibuprofen, omega-3 fatty acids, and polyethylene glycol. APIs that will go to Siegfried include ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, and caffeine. The divestiture will follow BASF’s sale of its Knoll Pharmaceuticals business to Abbott Laboratories, now Abbott, for $6.9 billion, in 2000, and its acquisition of Swiss pharmaceutical contract manufactu...

Brainstorming On A Global Scale

Chaos, noise, dirt, vivid colors, pungent smells, and everywhere people on the move. Welcome to Mumbai, one of the world’s largest cities, where more than 40% of the 20 million inhabitants live in slums. Last month it was also the location where BASF, the world’s largest chemical company, kicked off its 150th-anniversary-year celebration with a weeklong series of events—including an interactive symposium, competitions, and brainstorming meetings—to garner solutions for two major societal challenges: urban waste and lack of clean water. Almost two years in the planning, BASF’s anniversary year is set to feature similar meetings in several cities around the world. Included will be a science symposium on smart energy at its headquarters in Ludwigshafen, Germany, and brainstorming events dubbed Creator Space sessions aimed at generating solutions for major societal challenges. The stakeholders with which BASF is keen to “cocreate” are academics, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), technology experts, govern...

Rail Safety Plan Under Fire

After a string of fiery derailments in recent years, the federal government is moving to tighten regulations on mile-long trains hauling dozens of black, tube-shaped tank cars filled with crude oil or ethanol. But chemical industry groups say that a set of rules proposed in July by the Department of Transportation (DOT) would also impose restrictions on flammable liquids, such as acetone, cyclohexane, and propylene oxide, that are rarely shipped in more than a few tank cars per train. “Based on DOT’s own analysis, it is clear that the proposal was intended to specifically address very large train shipments of crude oil and ethanol,” says Thomas E. Schick, senior director of distribution, regulatory, and technical affairs at the American Chemistry Council (ACC), a trade association that represents the nation’s largest chemical companies. But the proposed rule is written so broadly, Schick says, that its impact would reach far beyond just ...

Large Mineral and Chemical Companies and their Reaction to Calls of Global Economy

The development of economy in terms of globalization, growth of innovative technologies provide changes in corporate strategies of the mining global companies. The research objective is to forecast export strategies of the head phosphate produ cers. Key results of the research: new regularities of the mineral resources markets were found out; approaches to management of companies was put forward; a forecast of the global phosphate market’s development was made; factors of manufacturing new and traditional types of product were found out.

Lessons Learned from Recent Accidents in the Chemical Industry in Japan

Japanese chemical companies should extensively study the accidental fires and explosions that occurred in the industrial complexes of Japan in 2011 and 2012. We picked two major accidents and distributed questionnaires to large chemical companies in the Keihin Complex, Japan. Here, we report the results of our investigation of improvements in process safety.

Earnings Fall In Japan

Japan’s economy expanded at an annualized rate of 3.5% in the first three months of 2013, but its chemical industry did not benefit from this growth. For the fiscal year that ended on March 31, most of Japan’s large chemical companies reported earnings lower than in the previous fiscal year or even losses. Several companies also reported lower year-over-year sales, a drop they attributed to sluggish demand both in Japan and abroad. The drop happened despite a weakening in the value of the yen, which can bolster the competitiveness of Japanese-made products in the international market. The yen was worth 14% less on March 31 than it was a year ago. Among the large firms, Sumitomo Chemical fared the worst, posting a net loss of $542 million compared with a profit of $59 million a year earlier. The company explained that it decreased by $211 million the value of production ...

German Growth: Bayer and BASF secure record 2012 sales, but net earnings dip

Bayer and BASF, Germany’s two largest chemical companies, reported record sales for 2012 last week, with the strongest growth coming from developing countries. But earnings at both firms were below the levels recorded in 2011. Bayer’s net earnings for 2012 were down 1.0% to $3.2 billion, based on an 8.8% sales increase to $52.4 billion. Bayer’s life sciences businesses recorded the strongest growth in earnings and sales. “We continued to grow dynamically, with all the subgroups posting gains in sales and earnings before special items,” said Chairman Marijn E. Dekkers, speaking last Thursday at the firm’s annual financial briefing in Leverkusen, Germany. Bayer’s 2012 earnings were hampered by one-time items totaling $2.3 billion. Dekkers forecasts that the company will increase sales in 2013 by 4–5% and pretax profits by a single-digit percentage. The firm plans to spend $4.2 billion on R&D in 2013, a hike of about 7%. BASF reported ...

고위험군(高危險群) 제조화학업체(製造化學業體)의 안전의식(安全意識) 실태(實態)에 관한 연구(硏究) (대기업(大企業) 화학업체(化學業體)를 대상(對象)으로)

This study was conducted in order to assist with infusing safety consciousness and resolving insensitivity towards safety for industrial accident in workers, managers and executives of chemical companies. Among many industrial accident prevention methods, Korea has been mostly taking an engineering approach of preventing industrial accidents by replacing old machines with risks of an accident and through new facilities and equipments. Through an attitude survey of workers in large scale chemical companies, this study wished to examine the fact that the biggest reason why the accident rate for the past 10 years has not decreased is because safety consciousness has not been established yet.