Chemicals Industry Financials

About 10,000 companies produce chemicals in the US, with combined annual revenues of $500 billion. Although large companies like Dow and DuPont produce hundreds of chemicals, most companies specialize in one or two product lines. The typical chemical company has annual revenue under $10 million. While the industry as a whole is fragmented, the concentration in many segments is very high: just a handful of manufacturers hold 80 percent or more of the segment.

The US manufacturing sector includes about 300,000 companies with combined annual sales of about $4 trillion. Major manufacturers include GM, Ford, GE, IBM, Boeing, Hewlett-Packard, Proctor & Gamble, Merck, Cisco, and DuPont. Although some companies like GE participate in many manufacturing sectors, the specialized nature of most manufacturing processes requires companies to specialize in a few types of products. Concentration tends to be high in those industry segments that produce basic commodities, like steel or fertilizer, or that require high degrees of engineering, like car or plane manufacture.

Using the 2002 Census Bureau Economic Census, Hoover's has generated an industry financial summary for the Chemicals industry.