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Chemical Manufacturing - Agricultural Industry Profile Excerpt
| SIC Codes: 2873, 2879 NAICS Codes: 3253 Page Length: 10-12 Last Quarterly Update: 7/7/2008 View Sample Industry Profile |
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In the US, about 700 companies are involved in the manufacture of agricultural chemicals, with combined annual revenue of $30 billion. Large companies include divisions of Dow and DuPont, and specialized producers like FMC, Mosaic, and Terra Industries. Many smaller companies are involved in mixing purchased raw materials to produce customized fertilizer compounds with special characteristics.
The industry is highly concentrated because of economies of scale in marketing and distribution. The eight largest producers of phosphate fertilizers control 90 percent of the market. The eight largest producers of nitrogen fertilizers control almost 80 percent of the market. Concentration is also high in the pesticide segment, where the eight largest producers control 70 percent of the market.
COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
Demand for agricultural chemicals depends mainly on demand for various crops, which in turn depends on crop prices. The profitability of individual companies is linked to efficient operations and marketing. Big producers have large economies of scale in production. Smaller companies can compete effectively by making specialty chemicals or fertilizer mixtures for local markets. Operations are capital-intensive and highly automated: annual revenue per employee at a large plant is close to $700,000.
PRODUCTS, OPERATIONS & TECHNOLOGY
Companies manufacture fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides, or produce fertilizer or pesticide mixtures. Fertilizers and pesticides each account for about 50 percent of industry revenue. Fertilizers are a handful of commodity chemicals that contain nitrogen, phosphorous, or potassium. Pesticides are a broader group of chemicals, but many ...
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