Chemicals Industry Overview

Companies that manufacture and/or distribute chemicals, including basic, intermediate, and specialty chemicals; petrochemicals; plastic resins and materials used in synthetic fibers; agrochemicals; and paints and coatings.

Summary

You might say that chemical companies are constantly between a rock and a hard place. Few industries can claim to be as sensitive to increases in raw material costs at one end of the supply chain and, at the other end, as pressured by competitors to keep prices down.Many chemical makers use natural gas and petroleum as raw materials and ingredients.

Full Chemicals Industry Description

Globalization

More Automation, Less Labor

Since the technology for producing many chemicals is well-known, production facilities are located all over the world, often near raw materials sources or markets. Developing countries in Asia and Africa are growing users of chemicals. While chemicals are a large US export, increased competition is coming from Asian producers.

Productivity has steadily increased in manufacturing because of the increasing use of machines and, especially, computers. Generally, US industries that have prospered in the past decade have been those where the most automation has been possible and technological content is high. The proportion of the US labor force employed in manufacturing has been dropping steadily for many years, even though industrial production has increased most of the time.

Full Chemicals Industry Trends

• Mitsubishi International Corporation
• United-Guardian, Inc.
• Dynaction SA

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Hoover's has developed its own industry classifications to better serve its customers. These classifications are mapped to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) and the older U.S. Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. The Chemicals maps to a number of NAICS codes including:

Full Chemicals Industry Codes

• American Chemical Society
  
• American Chemistry Council
  
• American Chemistry Council: Plastics Division
  

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