Chemical Manufacturing - Industrial Industry Profile

The US industrial chemical manufacturing industry includes about 1,400 companies with combined annual revenue of about $200 billion. Large companies include divisions of Dow, DuPont, and Occidental. The industry is concentrated: the 50 largest companies generate about 70 percent of revenue. Specific market segments are often dominated by just a handful of competitors. As few as eight companies account for almost all revenues in the petrochemical and carbon black sectors, for example.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Demand depends on the overall strength of the US economy, because most industrial chemicals are used in the manufacture of more-complicated products like fibers, plastics, paints, and paper. The profitability of individual companies is closely linked to efficient operations, because most products are commodities. Big producers have large economies of scale in production, which is why some chemicals are made by just a handful of companies. Small companies can compete effectively by making specialized or highly-purified products. The industry is capital-intensive: average annual revenue per employee is more than $1 million.

PRODUCTS, OPERATIONS & TECHNOLOGY

Industrial chemicals include gases like oxygen and nitrogen, dyes and pigments, chlorine and caustic soda, sulfuric and nitric acids, and thousands of organic chemicals. Unlike advanced chemicals that are manufactured through complicated chemical reactions, most industrial chemicals are made by extraction and purification from natural substances, including minerals, natural gas, petroleum, plants, air, and water. Oxygen and nitrogen gas are made by freezing air, phosphates from marine deposits, ethanol ...