In the past decade the map of the global industry has changed considerably. Old company names such as Rhone Poulenc, Elf, Nobel, Union Carbide, Huls, Hoechst, have duisappeared and were replaced by names picked by public relations managers such as Novartis, Clariant, Aventis, ChemFirst, Astra Zenreca, Wyeth, Syngenta.
Of the many large Companies whose main businesses were chemicals only two:
BASF å Dow remain.
Some of the selling, buying and reorganizations were for the purpose of controlling a larger market share in specific businesses, or to get rid of businesses with a small market share. Many of the sales were in order to appease the stock market for poor performance of the companies. The stock market only looks at the quarterly reports or the gossip columns. Each time a company is mentioned the value of its shares jump in either direction. Part of the sales was by manager who wanted the golden parachuttes they can obtain for making a good or a seeming good sale. Most sales ere not made for cash but by exhanges of shares, so that the composition of the share owners changed. Many sales were for ridiculously low or high price. Extremely high prices were paid for bubble biotechnological companies, that was a copy of the hi-tech bubble at the same period.
An extreme example is DuPont which changed directions a few times in the decade. It invested heavilyy in the pharmaceulogical area and got out, sold and bought electronic chemicals businesses. It bought it own shares instead of investing in new productiobn. It finally ended changing from chemical commodities to chemical specialties.
Anther company, Monsanto, which used to be a leader in chemical innovation, but which changed directiions every two years, and ended up in other hands, where the buyer is trying to get rid of this headache.
A. Buying and selling companies
(The above file is in visual Hebrew)
B. The pharmaceutical and biotechnological industries
| Company | 1999 (billion$) | 2000 (billion$) | 2001 (billion$) | 2003 (billion$) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GlaxoSmithKline | 20.1 | 23.5 | 29.5 | 33.4 |
| Pfizer-Warner-Lambert | 18.7 | 24.0 | 32.1 | 45.2 |
| Astra-Zeneca | 12.6 | 15.8 | 16.5 | 18.8 |
| Merck | 12.5 | 19.1 | 21.7 | 22.5 |
| Aventis | 12.1 | 14.6 | 15.4 | 18.5 |
| Novartis | 11.5 | 11.4 | 19.1 | 24.9 |
| Bristol-Myers-Squibb | 11.3 | 14.4 | 19.1 | 20.7 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 10.3 | 12.0 | 33.0* | 19.5 |
| Roche | 8.9 | 10.3 | 17.2 | 15.8 |
| American Home Products | 8.5 | 10.8 | 14.1 | 15.8** |
| Pharmacia | na | 12.6 | 13.8 | |
| EliLilly | na | 10.0 | 11.5 | 13.2 |
| Abbot | 14.0 |
* Includes $18.16 non drug sales
** Under its new name Wyeth
In 1994 there were only 4 US biotechnological companies that showed some profit:
- Amgen
- Biogen
- Chiron
- Genetech
| Location | Total | Asia-pacific | Canada | Europe | USA |
| Public companies (number) | 91 | 85 | 104 | 342 | 622 |
| Sales (billion$) | 1.00 | 1.02 | 7.53 | 25.3 | 34.9 |
| Losses (billion$) | 0.019 | 0.507 | 0.608 | 4.799 | 5.933 |
| R&D (billion$) | 0.175 | 0.474 | 4.244 | 11.532 | 16.425 |
| Employees ‘0006. | 5 | 7.0 | 34.2 | 141.0 | 188.7 |
| Private companies (number) | 441 | 331 | 1775 | 1115 | 3662 |
In 2000 16 of the larger 30 US biotechnological companies were profitable
In 2001 169of the larger 30 US biotechnological companies were profitable
In 2003 16 of the larger 30 US biotechnological companies were profitable but 53% of the total profits were by one company: Biogen
C. Agro
| Company | Argo sales in billion$ | ||
| Seeds | Pesticides | Total | |
| Syngent | 0.96 | 5.99 | 6.85 |
| Aventis | 5.61 | 5.61 | |
| Monsanto | 1.61 | 3.89 | 5.49 |
| DuPont | 1.94 | 2.51 | 4.45 |
| BASF | 3.60 | 3.60 | |
| Dow | 0.18 | 2.62 | 2.80 |
| Bayer | 2.23 | 2.23 | |
| Machteshim | 0.70 | 0.70 | |
| Sumitomo | 0.70 | 0.70 | |
| FMC | 0.67 | 0.67 | |
D. The grading of the largest companies in chemical sales
| Company | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dow | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| BASF | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| DuPont | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Shell | 7 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 4 |
| Exxon | 11 | 7 | 7 | 11 | 8 | 8 | 5** | 4 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 |
| Total | 39 | 38 | 42 | 42 | NA | 28 | 11 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| BP Amoco | 16 | 21 | 28 | 22 | 31 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 7 |
| Bayer | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 8 |
| China P&C | 26 | 14 | 13 | 9 | ||||||||
| Mitsubishi | 17 | 17 | 15 | 13 | 17 | 31 | 23 | 13 | 14 | 17 | 9 | 10 |
| Sabic | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 13 | 12 | 11 |
| Degussa | 46 | 47 | 48 | 27 | NA | 35 | 9*** | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 12 |
| Formosa PG | 16 | 13 | ||||||||||
| Akzo | 18 | 14 | 13* | 16 | 9 | 19 | 8 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 11 | 14 |
| Huntsman | – | – | – | 46 | 32 | 29 | 14 | 15 | 12 | 20 | 24 | 15 |
| Mitsui | – | – | 40 | 40 | NA | 43 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 15 | 16 |
| Air Liquide | 26 | 18 | 33 | 33 | 29 | 25 | 21 | 26 | 22 | 18 | 19 | 17 |
| ICI | 1 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 14 | 18 |
| Sumitomo Chem | 19 | 25 | 21 | 19 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 12 | 20 | 19 | 20 | 19 |
| Toray | 21 | 20 | ||||||||||
| DSM | 20 | 24 | 27 | 26 | 23 | 12 | 22 | 20 | 19 | 27 | 25 | 21 |
| Equistar | 27 | 22 | ||||||||||
| Dainippon | 35 | 35 | 31 | 32 | 13 | 17 | 20 | 18 | 15 | 15 | 17 | 23 |
| Chevron Phillips | 23 | 24 | ||||||||||
| Shin-Etsu | 38 | 22 | 22 | 25 | ||||||||
| General Electric | 24 | 27 | 20 | 18 | 18 | 14 | 18 | 16 | 17 | 16 | 18 | 26 |
| LanXess | 27 | |||||||||||
| PPG | 24 | 25 | 26 | 28 | ||||||||
| Ashai | 13 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 36 | 41 | NA | 36 | 35 | 35 | 36 | 29 |
| BOC | 35 | 24 | 32 | 30 | ||||||||
| Air Products | 31 | 31 | ||||||||||
| Ineos | 42 | 32 | ||||||||||
| Clariant | – | – | – | – | 14 | 15 | 24 | 30 | 27 | NA | 29 | 33 |
| ENI | 8 | 11 | 14 | 15 | 28 | 33 | 43 | 34 | 46 | NA | 41 | 34 |
| Praxair | 37 | 35 | ||||||||||
| Eastman | 34 | 36 | ||||||||||
| Reliance | 28 | 37 | ||||||||||
| Rhodia | 21 | 23 | 30 | 38 | ||||||||
| Sasol | 33 | 39 | ||||||||||
| Solvay | 21 | 15 | 26 | 23 | 26 | 26 | 19 | 38 | 41 | 42 | 39 | 40 |
| Rohm & Haas | 35 | 41 | ||||||||||
| Yara | – | – | 42 | |||||||||
| LG Chem | 45 | 43 | ||||||||||
| Syngenta | 23 | 32 | NA | 38 | 44 | |||||||
| Liondell | 49 | 45 | ||||||||||
| Borealis | 47 | 46 | ||||||||||
| Ciba | 10 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 30 | 21 | 26 | 39 | 45 | 41 | 43 | 47 |
| Teijin | 46 | 48 | ||||||||||
| Nova | 48 | 49 | ||||||||||
| Celanese | – | – | – | – | – | – | 40 | 44 | 44 | 44 | 44 | 50 |
| Henkel | 28 | 22 | 22 | 20 | 22 | 18 | 16 | 21 | 17 | NA | NA | NA |
| Norsk Hydro | 25 | 28 | 25 | 24 | 15 | 45 | 35 | 40 | 39 | 21 | NA | NA |
| Hoechst | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 7 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Rhone-Poulenc | 9 | 9 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 9 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Elf Aquitainea | 12 | 12 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 12 | – | – | – | – | – |
| Veba(Huls) | 14 | 16 | 17 | NA | 14 | 16 | 16 | *** | – | – | – | – |
| Monsanto | 15 | 19 | 18 | 17 | NA | 40 | 33 | 49 | 47 | 50 | – | – |
| Union Carbide | 22 | 26 | 24 | 25 | 19 | 23 | 28 | – | – | – | – | – |
| Sekisui | 23 | 20 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Nobel | 48 | 46 | * | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Aventis | – | – | – | – | – | – | 17 | 33 | 43 | – | – | – |
| Novartis | – | – | – | – | 27 | 20 | 36 | – | – | – | – | – |
***Degussa-Huls
** ExxonMobil
*Akzo-Nobel – Does not exist