Brazil: leading (petro-)chemical companies in 2019, by net revenue

In 2019, Braskem S.A was by far the leading company in the chemical and petrochemical sector in Brazil, based on net revenue. The company generated approximately 52.3 billion Brazilian reals worth of revenue that year. Yara Brasil Fertilizantes trailed in second, with 15 billion reals in revenue.

The Brazilian chemical industry

Brazil, the largest economy in Latin America, is also home to the most important chemical industry in the region. Moreover, the South American country ranked amongst the leading chemical markets worldwide in 2019, based on revenue. Nevertheless, this Brazilian sector has been struggling in recent years, following an economic crisis which hit the country in the second half of the decade. In 2019, the revenue of Brazil’s chemical industry was expected to reach 119 billion U.S. dollars, a decrease of more than 19 percent in comparison to the average registered between 2010 and 2014.

A mix of domestic and foreign capital

Braskem, a firm headquartered in São Paulo, is the undisputed leader in the Brazilian chemical sector. In 2019, Braskem’s revenue added up to the same amount generated by the remaining top five companies in the sector, combined. Despite the company’s dominance, some of the most valuable chemical companies worldwide have set up shop in the Portuguese-speaking country, including U.S.-American DuPont and Germans BASF and Bayer. In fact, eight out of the ten leading chemical companies in Brazil that year were international companies, with Braskem and Fertipar as the only exceptions.