The chemical industry comprises the companies that produce industrial chemicals. It is central to the modern world economy, converting raw materials (oil, natural gas, air, water, metals, minerals) into more than 70,000 different products. Polymers and plastics, especially polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene terephthalate, polystyrene and polycarbonate comprise about 80% of the industry’s output worldwide.
Chemicals are used to make a wide variety of consumer goods such as leather and footwear, as well as thousands inputs to agriculture, manufacturing, construction, and service industries. The chemical industry itself consumes 26 percent of its own output.
Chemicals is nearly a $2 trillion global enterprise, and the EU and U.S. chemical companies are the world's largest producers.
The chemical industry has shown rapid growth for more than fifty years. The traditional dominance of chemical production by the Triad countries is being challenged by changes in feedstock availability and price, labour cost, energy cost, differential rates of economic growth and environmental pressures. Instrumental in the changing structure of the global chemical industry has been the growth in China, India, Korea, the Middle East, South East Asia, Nigeria, Trinidad, Thailand, Brazil, Venezuela, and Indonesia.