According to Chemical and Engineering News' latest rankings of chemical companies, Dow Chemical...

According to Chemical and Engineering News' latest rankings of chemical companies, Dow Chemical was the leader, with chemical sales of $46.3 billion. Coming in second was BASF, with a sales figure of $43.7 billion Royal Dutch/Shell was third at $35.0 billion, and Exxon Mobil was fourth at $31.2

billion. Rounding out the top five was Total, with sales of $27.8 billion. DuPont dropped to sixth place and lost its spot among the top three chemical companies, where it had rested for five years. DuPont's sales were down 16% in 2005 to $25.3 billion. Showing the greatest increase was Lyondell Chemical, whose sales grew 212% to land at 12th place with sales of $18.6 billion due to its purchase of Millennium Chemicals. Overall, the aggregate operating profit margin of the chemical industry top 50 increased from 8.1% to 9.1% in 2005. Capital spending increased by 27.6% to nearly $31.5 billion. However, as a percentage of chemical sales, R&D spending declined from 1.8% in 2004 to 1.6% in 2005.

Source: Chemical and Engineering News