The annual ranking by ICIS of the world's top 100 chemical companies provides a clear picture of the petrochemical industry's status. According to this ranking, which evaluates companies' performance in 2025, BASF, Sinopec, ExxonMobil, PetroChina, and Dow occupy the top five positions, respectively. This ranking indicates major changes in the petrochemical industry and clearly confirms the shift of the industry's center of gravity towards Asia, particularly China.
Financial Challenges and Production Capacity
The total operating profit of the top 100 companies in this industry has decreased by about 47%, and net profit has fallen by more than 80%. These figures indicate that even the largest and most powerful players in the petrochemical industry have not been immune to market pressures. Relatively weak demand in some key markets and increased production capacity, especially in China, are among the factors that have intensified competition and pressure on prices and profit margins. In fact, the global petrochemical industry is facing an issue where production capacity in many chains has grown faster than demand.
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The Need for a Change in Approach in Iran's Petrochemical Industry
This situation is particularly significant for producing countries like Iran. In recent years, a substantial part of the country's petrochemical development policy has focused on increasing capacity, launching new complexes, and growing production. However, it is now time to change the perspective on the petrochemical industry. The future competition will not be about which country or company has more capacity to produce ethylene, polyethylene, propylene, or other products, but rather the main issue is how this capacity is utilized, with what feedstock, at what cost, and with what level of efficiency.
For this reason, the main message of the ICIS ranking for Iran's petrochemical industry is the necessity to shift the focus from "capacity-centric" to "value creation." In such circumstances, specialized products, production flexibility, market development, technology, artificial intelligence, energy consumption reduction, carbon management, and increased productivity become as important as nominal capacity, and in some cases, even more so.
One noteworthy point in this ranking is the status of Iranian companies, especially the Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company. This holding, which has been recognized as Iran's most important representative in such international rankings in recent years, is not seen in the list of the top 100 companies in this ICIS period. This absence is particularly noteworthy given that this holding has a history of presence in this ranking and has achieved significant positions at times.
The reality is that the size of a company alone does not guarantee competitiveness. If a holding has dozens of complexes and millions of tons of production capacity, but has high production costs, frequent shutdowns, a low-diversity product portfolio, and limited export markets, increasing capacity will not necessarily lead to increased value. Iran's petrochemical industry is now at a point where its future decisions must focus on the quality of growth, not just the size of growth.
Developing downstream chains, producing higher value-added products, and smartly selecting export markets can change the path of competitiveness. Therefore, the ICIS ranking should be seen as a reflection of the new rules of the game in the global petrochemical industry. In these rules, being larger does not necessarily mean being more competitive, and the future winner will be the company that creates the most value from every ton of feedstock, every unit of energy, and every dollar of investment.
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