Major Chemical Companies Research Articles

Disciplines and Jobs

Opportunities and job descriptions can differ markedly by discipline. Science offers a snapshot of the types of research jobs at some major European chemical companies.

INVESTORS' DAY IN PHILADELPHIA

THE TERM MAKING HAY WHILE the sun shines and similar expressions came up frequently at the 2nd Annual Chemical Industry Conference held at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia late last month. Representatives from eight major chemical companies—Praxair, Ashland, Cabot, Eastman Chemical, Lyondell Chemical, Hercules, DuPont, and Rohm and Haas—outlined their firms' virtues and admitted to faults they plan to correct. But most of all, they discussed plans to get as much profitable growth as possible out of the current economic expansion. Ricardo S. Malfitano, senior vice president of Praxair, said demand for hydrogen is now growing 20-25% per year, making hydrogen the company's fastest growing business. Consumption by refiners to upgrade fuel, oil, and bitumen is a primary driver in hydrogen demand, he said. To meet that demand, Praxair expects to announce that it will build at least one, if not two, new hydrogen plants before the end of this year. BUT MALFITANO noted ...

EUROPEANS BASK IN PROFITS' SUN

FOR MOST OF THE MAJOR EUROpean chemical companies that have reported their year-end financial results, 2004 was a decidedly good year. In fact, a sense of optimism radiated through the plethora of annual press conferences held by companies in February and March, because, for a change, the news was mostly good. For example, even financially beleaguered Rhodia was able to more than halve its net loss, with Chief Executive Officer Jean-Pierre Clamadieu confirming that the company expects to return to net profit in 2006. A restructuring of the company's debt—which fell in 2004 to just above $3 billion—and tight cost controls, augmented by income from divestitures, helped the company strengthen its balance sheet, Clamadieu said. And Rhodia was able to pass on some higher raw material costs to its customers, as were other European chemicals suppliers. Ironically, it was in Germany—where the national economy has been sputtering along fitfully—that chemical companies seemed to do best. ...

Static Bifurcation Characteristics of an Autothermal Circulating Fluidized Bed Hydrogen Generator for Fuel Cells

Professor Milorad P. Dudukovic is the Chairman of the Chemical Engineering Department at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, and a leading figure in multiphase reactors. He has authored several highly cited papers on chemical reaction engineering involving kinetic−transport interactions in multiphase systems. He has a commitment to the development of reaction engineering theory and practice for solving a variety of practical and fundamental problems. He is the director of the Chemical Reaction Engineering Laboratory (CREL) at Washington University, which is supported by over a dozen major chemical and petroleum companies. Some of his recent research accomplishments include the development of computer-assisted radioactive particle tracking for studies of multiphase flows for improving computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models for multiphase systems and for selecting environmentally friendly reactors for the conversion of natural and synthesis gas to fuels and chemicals and novel coupling of exothermic ...

EVERY SILVER LINING HAS A CLOUD

EARNINGS AT 25 MAJOR CHEMICAL companies rose in t h e second quarter compared with the same period in 2002, but the increase was driven by just a few firms with big gains. T h e group's earnings from continuing operations, excluding significant nonrecurring items, rose 8.6% over the same period last year to $2.05 billion, as sales increased a greater 9.2% to $32.6 billion. The aggregate profit margin for the 25 firms remained unchanged at 6.3%. It is good to see an increase in earnings, but the underlying fundamentals are not so reassuring. For one thing, the increases in individual company results were not widespread. Of the 25,12 showed earnings improvements, 12 showed declines, and one—Praxair—was unchanged. The 12 firms with earnings growth in the second quarter include Hercules, which showed a loss in the same period last year but in this year's April to June period rose to seventh among the 25 ...

PRUDENT SPENDING BUDGETS FOR 2002

AS THE ECONOMY SLOWED LAST year, major chemical companies slowed funding for research and capital improvements. And while they wait for the economy to take a turn for the better, chemical producers indicate they will be making only the most prudent investments this year So it should come as no surprise that a C&EN survey of 18 U.S. chemical companies finds capital investment plans will barely keep pace with inflation. The group estimates that it will spend $7.2 billion this year—a 2% increase above 2001. And C&EN predicts that capital spending as a percent of sales will be 6.3%—a decade low—assuming a 2.5% increase in sales for the group in 2002. The companies C&EN surveyed about research expect to cut R&D spending this year by more than 3%. This group of 15 chemical producers plans to spend only $4.9 billion this year compared with almost $5.1billion in 2001. And C&EN predicts that R&D as a percent of ...

Bulk chemicals from biotechnology: the case of 1,3-propanediol production and the new trends.

The need for a sustainable resource supply, the rapid advances in plant biotechnology and microbial genetics and the strategic shift of major chemical companies into the area of life sciences are some of the driving forces for renewed interest in producing bulk chemicals from renewable resources by biological processes. The microbial production of 1,3-propanediol as briefly reviewed in this article and compared with the competing chemical processes demonstrates the promise and constraints of bioprocesses for bulk chemicals. The new concept of biorefinery and biocommodity engineering and future research needs in this area are also outlined.

FOURTH-QUARTER EARNINGS PLUNGE

EARNINGS FROM U.S. CHEMICAL companies, hurt by increased raw material costs and a strong dollar, took a mighty fall in the fourth quarter. C&EN's latest survey of 25 major chemical companies showed a 22% decline in earnings from continuing operations, excluding major unusual items in the fourth quarter. But for the full year, despite declining earnings in both the third and fourth quarters, the 25 companies combined eked out a 2% increase. In contrast, earnings from 10 diversified companies that are also major chemical producers declined 8% for the quarter, while still managing to increase 8% for the year. And for six oil companies, earnings soared 96% in the last three months of the year and rose 128% for the full year. However, these dramatic increases were all the result of rising oil prices. Chemical operations at these companies generally declined significantly. The total chemical economy in the fourth quarter ...

AT LAST, INVESTORS LIKE CHEMICALS

IT IS NO SECRET THAT INVESTORS tired of technology stocks in 2000, but this was good news for chemical and pharmaceutical shares. However, during the fourth quarter, biopharmaceutical issues got caught in the tech trap and, as a group, saw stock prices fall during those three months. Long beaten down by Wall Street, chemicals were the star growth performers during the quarter among the three industry segments. C&EN's stock index of 25 major chemical companies rose 22.5% from the end of the third quarter to finish at 158 (1992 = 100), with most of the growth coming in the last two weeks of the year when the index rose almost 13%. C&EN's index for major pharmaceutical companies was up 13.6% for the quarter, while the biopharmaceutical index fell 12.0%. The fourth quarter, in which investors abandoned high technology and put their money into old-line issues, sending the NASDAQ down 33%, actually saved the year for ...

Earnings Fall At Major Chemical Firms

So, the chemical industry had three straight quarters of earnings growth. Following a modest increase in the final three months of 1999, this year it looked as if the industry was finally getting on a growth track with double-digit earnings increases in the first two reporting periods. Then came the third quarter with its tightening oil supplies that drove up energy and feedstock costs. The result was another quarter of declining earnings from the year-earlier quarter for many of the 25 major chemical companies regularly surveyed by C&EN. Earnings from continuing operations, excluding significant nonrecurring and extraordinary items for the group, fell an aggregate 7% to $1.65 billion despite a very good increase in sales of 8% to $26.9 billion. With the huge disparity between sales growth and earnings decline, profitability plummeted. The aggregate profit margin for the 25 chemical firms was 6.1% in the third quarter, down from 7.1% for the same period in ...

Chemical Sales Up, Earnings Mixed In Third Quarter

As expected, higher raw materials costs are taking their toll on third-quarter earnings at major chemical companies. Despite rising prices for most chemical products and increased sales at many companies, earnings declined compared with the same quarter in 1999 for eight of the 15 largest U.S. chemical producers. However, at companies where earnings did increase, the results were often very good. For instance, Eastman Chemical had the largest percentage increase. Earnings from continuing operations, excluding significant unusual items, rose 184% to $77.8 million on a 17% increase in sales to $1.39 billion. Earnest W. Deavenport Jr., the company's chairman and chief executive officer, credited Eastman's ongoing emphasis on cost reductions and increased selling prices for their positive impact on third-quarter earnings. But better markets also played a role, with operating income for the chemical sector up 50% and almost tripling for polymers as the polyethylene terephthalate business improved. IMC Global r...

CHEMICAL EARNINGS JUMP

RETURN TO ISSUEPREVNewsNEXTCHEMICAL EARNINGS JUMPHigher demand and prices spur increase in the bottom line at major chemical companies, despite higher raw materials costsWILLIAM J. STORCKView Author Information C&EN Northeast News BureauCite this: Chem. Eng. News 2000, 78, 21, 14–17Publication Date (Print):May 22, 2000Publication History Published online12 November 2010Published inissue 22 May 2000https://doi.org/10.1021/cen-v078n021.p014Copyright © 2000 American Chemical SocietyArticle Views9Altmetric-Citations-LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InReddit PDF (1021 KB) SUBJECTS:Lipids Get e-Alerts

Chemical Earnings Surge In First Quarter

U.S. chemical companies are generally reporting significant increases in earnings for the first quarter this year, in many cases beating security analysts' expectations. For 13 of 15 major chemical companies reporting thus far, earnings climbed despite rising raw materials costs as sales volume increased and prices were up from year-earlier levels. For the 15 companies, earnings from continuing operations, excluding unusual items, are up an aggregate 19% on a 14% increase in sales. That will change as reports come in from all 25 of the chemical companies that C&EN regularly surveys, but the numbers should still be extremely good. In fact, this will be the second straight quarterly increase for the group after more than a year of steady declines. Industry leader DuPont scored a 20% earnings rise to $898 million on sales that rose 21% to $7.59 billion. According to the company, more than half of its business units ...

Chemical Stocks Suffer, But Show Late Rebound

The April 11-14 stock market debacle in which the Dow Jones industrial average fell 8.7% was an encapsulation of the volatility of the markets for chemical, drug, and biotech stocks for the previous month. In fact, except for biotech stocks, which ended March higher than they had been at the beginning of the year, the entire first quarter was unkind to chemical-related securities. C&EN's latest survey of the stock prices of 25 major chemical companies shows an overall drop for the period. And for every company showing a higher stock price at the end of the quarter, four were down from their levels at the end of 1999. The result was that C&EN's chemical stock index fell 8.0% for the quarter to 151 (1992 = 100). This compares with a 5.0% drop for the Dow Jones industrial average. However, in the last couple of weeks of the quarter, chemical stocks started to gain favor as ...

CHEMICAL EARNINGS TURN UP

It finally happened. After having earnings contract for six straight quarters, the chemical industry in 1999's fourth quarter began to show renewed growth. Chemical companies—those with more than 50% of their sales derived from chemicals—reported that earnings increased 4% from fourth-quarter 1998. Oil companies that produce chemicals had a huge overall earnings increase of 62%—largely brought on by the rising price of oil—but for the most part, their chemical operations were a part of this. And producers classified as diversified or other posted 35% earnings growth, according to C&EN's latest survey. For 23 of the 25 major chemical companies regularly surveyed by C&EN, earnings in the fourth quarter totaled $1.66 billion on a sales gain of 12% to $25.4 billion. Hercules and CK Witco are not included in the totals because of a lack of year-to-year comparability as a result of acquisitions. However, despite rising earnings, profitability fell. The aggregate profit margin ...

Chemicals from biotechnology: molecular plant genetics will challenge the chemical and the fermentation industry.

Industrial biotechnology has evolved as a significant manufacturing tool for products like fuel-grade ethanol, organic acids and bulk amino acids, but most items are still speciality products for food and pharmaceutical applications. Current development projects within the chemical industry, including lactic acid and 1,3-propanediol based polymers and plastics, indicate that new biotechnological processes and products may soon approach the market place, clearly targeted at the leading petrochemical bulk outlets. This is flanked by a strategic shift by the major chemical companies in to "life sciences"-pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and the seed business as well as biotech fine chemicals. The recent tremendous achievements in molecular plant genetics and transgenic crop breeding will boost agrobiotechnology, agriculture and renewable raw materials as compelling projects for chemistry and biotechnology. New plant-based production routes may challenge established chemical and biochemical domains, but at the same time open new horizons to valuable feedstocks, intermediates and end-products.

Process and product engineering – achievements, present and future challenges

In this paper, present and future challenges faced by chemical engineers are discussed. To place the development of this discipline in its industrial and social context, a short history of chemical engineering in one of the major global chemical companies (BASF) is given. The ‘scientific part’ of chemical engineering consists in breaking down real complex systems into subsystems, which are then described using our understanding of fundamental chemical and physical processes. The ‘engineering part’ of chemical engineering consists in using this new found knowledge in the design and construction of a working plant which is capable of producing the desired product, even if our understanding of the single subsystems is today incomplete. From the components that make up our discipline, process engineering has in the last several decades attained a high degree of scientific maturity. Further developments are needed and expected in the improved description of fundamental chemical and physical processes necessary particularly to model reaction systems. The other field, product engineering, is a younger, less mature area where the scientific elucidation of the structure/property relationship at molecular and microscopic levels first needs to be tackled. This knowledge is required to model disperse systems so as to design products and develop appropriate production facilities. Improving the design and evaluation of complex systems for the production of real products will require further research into methodologies, tools and strategies. Firstly, these improvements will enable us to combine various unit operations so as to obtain an optimal overall process within an optimally designed production plant. And secondly, this individual production plant should in turn be optimally integrated into the entire production site. Such procedures must take into account both the requirements of customers as well as environmental concerns. The challenges faced by the chemical engineering community can only be met if two preconditions are fulfilled: both organisations carrying out basic research and R&D departments focussed on applied research within companies must be at the cutting edge of technology. And furthermore, they must work even more closely together if we are to meet the challenges described in this paper. It is also essential that young engineers and scientists as part of their education should be integrated into this research effort and become fully committed to it.

Process and Product Engineering: Achievements, Present and Future Challenges

In this paper, present and future challenges faced by chemical engineers are discussed. To place the development of this discipline in its industrial and social context, a short history of chemical engineering in one of the major global chemical companies (BASF) is given. The ‘scientific part’ of chemical engineering consists in breaking down real complex systems into subsystems, which are then described using our understanding of fundamental chemical and physical processes. The ‘engineering part’ of chemical engineering consists in using this new-found knowledge in the design and construction of a working plant which is capable of producing the desired product, even if our understanding of the single subsystems is today incomplete. From the components that make up our discipline, process engineering has in the last several decades attained a high degree of scientific maturity. Further developments are needed and expected in the improved description of fundamental chemical and physical processes necessary particularly to model reaction systems. The other field, product engineering, is a younger, less mature area where the scientific elucidation of the structure/property relationship at molecular and microscopic levels first needs to be tackled. This knowledge is required to model disperse systems so as to design products and develop appropriate production facilities. Improving the design and evaluation of complex systems for the production of real products will require further research into methodologies, tools and strategies. Firstly, these improvements will enable us to combine various unit operations so as to obtain an optimal overall process within an optimally designed production plant. And secondly, this individual production plant should in turn be optimally integrated into the entire production site. Such procedures must take into account both the requirements of customers as well as environmental concerns. The challenges faced by the chemical engineering community can only be met if two preconditions are fulfilled: both organizations carrying out basic research and R&D departments focused on applied research within companies must be at the cutting edge of technology. And furthermore, they must work even more closely together if we are to meet the challenges described in this paper. It is also essential that young engineers and scientists as part of their education should be integrated into this research effort and become fully committed to it.

EARNINGS TUMBLE IN THIRD QUARTER

Lower demand, pricing, and the Asia-Pacific economic crisis took their toll on third-quarter results for chemical companies. These economic conditions also hurt chemical results at other major chemical producers such as oil and diversified companies. Therefore, it is no wonder that earnings at 30 major chemical companies— those with half or more of their sales in chemicals—fell 16% to $2.02 billion. This earnings drop came on a 2% sales decline to $25.6 billion, causing the aggregate profit margin for the group to fall to 7.9% from 9.2% in the third quarter last year. Eleven major oil companies that have significant chemical operations experienced declining oil prices, declining chemical prices, and lower demand. The overall financial situation was much worse for these firms than for chemical companies, with earnings falling 44% to $2.98 billion, while sales declined 21% to $71.3 billion. The aggregate profit margin dropped to 4.2% from 5.9%. Ten diversified and other companies fared ...

CHEMICAL EARNINGS' CURRENT QUANDARY

There is no red ink among 18 major chemical companies that have reported third-quarter earnings, but there are a lot of minus signs in the percent change column. However, there are almost as many plus signs, giving rise to the question: Just what is going on here? Of the 18 companies, 10 have reported lower earnings—compared with last year's third quarter—from continuing operations, excluding significant nonrecurring and extraordinary items. These range from a 4% decline at Cytec Industries to a 58% plunge at Union Carbide. As in the previous quarter, slowing of national economies around the world— especially in Asia—was blamed for many of the declines. For instance, at Union Carbide, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer William H. Joyce said in a press release that the company's consolidated results and the results of its joint ventures and partnerships reflected continued market weakness, particularly in Asia. In addition, he pointed out that prices of certain ...