World Chemical Rankings released in 2010

Asian companies rise sharply in fertilizer rankings

The "Chemical Weekly" of the United States just announced the latest ranking of the world's chemical billion-dollar club in 2010, based on the company's chemical sales in 2009. In the latest rankings, BASF once again took the lead, which is the fourth consecutive year in the list; Dow Chemical Company surpassed ExxonMobil to return to second place. The 2010 World Chemicals $1 Billion Club Rankings data reflects the poor economic conditions at the beginning of 2009. Although the global economy began to recover in the second half of 2009, the chemical sales revenue and profitability of most of the short-listed companies were lower than 2008. year.

The first camp was disrupted

Comparing last year's and this year's rankings, although the top 10 in last year's rankings remained in the group's camp for the first time this year, except for BASF and Total, which still occupy the front and back positions, the seats of other companies have changed.

In 2009, BASF's chemical business sales revenue fell 16% year-on-year to 49.8 billion U.S. dollars, but the top spot still could not shake; Dow Chemical's sales revenue dropped 22% year-on-year to US$44.9 billion, but rose to second place. ExxonMobil's chemical sales revenue dropped 29% year-on-year to US$41 billion, ranking third; Saab rose 2 to 4th with US$31.2 billion in chemical sales revenue; Sinopec to 289 Billion-dollar chemical sales rose 3rd to 5th; Shell and Ineos both dropped 2 places and ranked 6th and 7th; DuPont rose 1st to 8th; Leandersbacher Seoul's ranking fell by 2 to 9th; Total's ranking remained at 10th.

Asian company's ranking rises sharply

Among the 133 companies that were nominated for this year's rankings, the United States has 47 finalists, 36 Europeans and 31 Japanese. However, in the top 20, European companies occupy 10 seats, Asia holds 7 seats, and the United States has only 3 seats.

One of the highlights of this year's rankings is the sharp increase in rankings of Asian companies, which also shows that during the global economic downturn, the Asian market has become a major global growth driver. SABIC ranked 2nd to 4th in sales revenue of US$31.2bn in chemical products; Sinopec rose 3rd to 5th in sales of chemical products with US$28.9bn; PetroChina ranks up with US$17.5bn in chemical sales revenue. From No. 2 to No. 14; India Trust Industry Corporation increased its ranking by 12th to 17th with a sales revenue of 13.2 billion U.S. dollars; South Korea's LG Chemical Co., Ltd. rose 10th to 36th place; South Korea's Hunan Petrochemical Corp. rose by 59 places. Rank 54 is the company with the largest increase in rankings on this year's rankings; Malaysia's National Petroleum ranks 12th to 72nd.

Fertilizer companies suffered heavy losses

After experiencing a brilliant year in 2008, the fertilizer industry was hit hardest by the economic recession in 2009. Potash Corp’s sales revenue dropped by 57% year-on-year to US$3.977 billion, ranking from No. 39 last year to No. 69 this year; Norwegian Yalak Company and US Mosaic Sales revenue fell 31% and 34%, respectively, to 10.624 billion U.S. dollars and 6.759 billion U.S. dollars, ranking 23rd and 31st respectively to 26th and 43rd; but the sales revenue of another Canadian fertilizer company, Jiayang Company, It increased by 9% to 9.129 billion U.S. dollars, ranking from 33 to 30.

In addition, the profit margins of all fertilizer companies that have been listed have fallen by more than 45%. Among them, Canadian Potash Corp dropped by 74%, Yara Company decreased by 90%, Meisheng Company decreased by 47%, and Jiayang Company decreased by 71%. However, fertilizer producers said that due to the increase in market demand in the first half of 2010 and higher sales prices, sales revenue and profitability for 2010 will be better than in 2009.

M & A deal will change the ranking

Since the economic weakness in 2009 caused the M&A transaction activity to decline significantly, M&A transactions have had little impact on this year's rankings. However, since the beginning of 2010, the global chemical industry has become increasingly active in M&A transactions. Some large-scale M&A deals have been announced, which may change the ranking of the next year. If Corning Corporation of Germany has already agreed to be acquired by BASF, Corning’s sales revenue in 2009 was 3.7 billion U.S. dollars, ranking 77th; CF Industrial Company earlier this year acquired Trasonic Industrial, CF Industrial and Tela The company’s sales revenue for the past year was US$1.839 billion and US$1.561 billion, respectively, ranking 119 and 124 respectively. South Korea’s Hunan Petrochemical Company achieved sales revenue of US$5.1 billion last year, ranking from 113 in the previous year to 54 in this year. This year, the company will acquire Malaysian Titan Chemical Company, which in 2009 had sales revenue of US$1.6 billion, ranking 123rd.

In addition, American Air Products Co. bid about $7.2 billion for the acquisition of Airgas. Although Airgas declined this offer, Air Products is still insisting on the acquisition. Air Products' sales revenue last year was $8.3 billion, ranking 35th; Airgas sales revenue was $3.9 billion, ranking 73rd. Australian mining company BHP Billiton also recently proposed the purchase of Canadian Potash Corp at a price of US$130/share. The entire acquisition value reached US$40 billion. Although Potash Corp of Canada has rejected it, it is still not possible to rule out the possibility that this acquisition will ultimately succeed.