The Top 50 Global Chemical Companies Released in 2021, Sinopec Still Ranks Second

Jul 29, 2021

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Ineos’ sales of US$31.31 billion ranked fourth, up two places; Saudi Basic Industries Corporation’s sales of US$28.79 billion, ranked fifth, down one place; Formosa Plastics dropped one place and ranked sixth; LG Chem A sharp rise of 5 places, ranking 7th; Mitsubishi Chemical dropped 1 place, ranking 8th; Linde and Lyondell Basel swapped positions and ranked 9th and 10th.

In 2021, 7 Chinese chemical companies will enter the world’s top 50, an increase of 1 from the previous year. It is worth noting that the rankings of Chinese companies are basically flat or rising, reflecting the vigorous development of China’s chemical industry. Except for Sinopec and Formosa Plastics, China National Petroleum Corporation ranked 13th in the same position as last year; Hengli Petrochemical ranked 15th, up 11 places sharply; Sinochem’s Syngenta ranked 26th; Wanhua Chemical ranked 29th . Rongsheng Petrochemical entered the top 50 for the first time this year, ranking 42nd.

As China’s largest chemical company, Sinopec was hit by the new crown pneumonia epidemic earlier than most large chemical companies in the world. In fact, the company’s chemical revenue fell 24% last year and its operating profit plummeted 38%. Despite the setbacks, Sinopec is still focused on long-term growth and has a more ambitious capital expansion plan than most large chemical companies. For example, Sinopec will complete the construction of new ethylene cracking plants in Zhenhai, Hainan, and Tianjin in China this year and in the next two years, and will start building a large propane dehydrogenation plant in Zhenhai next year, hoping to be completed in 2025.

In 2020, PetroChina ranked 13th, with chemical sales of 21.769 billion U.S. dollars, a decrease of 4.3% from 2019. PetroChina is currently building ethylene crackers in Tarim and Changqing, China, which will use ethane from domestic natural gas fields as raw materials. These projects are not uncommon in the United States or the Middle East, where oil and natural gas are cheap and abundant, but in resource-limited China, ethylene cracking mainly uses naphtha extracted from imported oil. In addition, China also obtains petrochemical raw materials from coal, and both routes to ethylene are relatively expensive.