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Profits of companies endangering the environment
2 May 1989
To: Citizens fighting toxics problems
Fm: Greenpeace Research Division
Re: Economic Information
Following are some interesting industrial economic data.
When addressing pollution issues, it can be powerful to cite the
corporate source's 1988 earnings... to the media and to the
public.
For example, Exxon had sales of $87 billion and profits of
5.2 billion last year. How much will they spend on the Alaska
cleanup?
General
"Year-to-year, February prices for industrial chemicals were up
17.2% from February 1988 ..."
Hercules
"For 1989 as a whole, the company is predicting a 30 to 35%
increase over last year's operating income ..."
Hoechst
"For West German chemicals giant Hoechst, its 125th anniversary
year in 1988 went well. ... pretax profits increased 32% to R2.31
billion. ... Pretax profits of Hoechst A.G. [the West German parent
company] were $1.14 billion, up 18%."
Rhone-Poulenc
"[C]onsolidated net profits [for 1988] soared 47% to $570
million. ... each of its four sectors -- chemicals, agrochemicals,
specialty pharmaceuticals, and fibers -- `showed structural
improvements' to the point that operating profits were $1 billion, up
50% over the previous year."
ICI
"Britain's largest chemicals maker, ICI ... will buy, for $90
million, K-S-H Inc., a St. Louis-based producer of acrylic products
..."
American/Soviet Trade Consortium
"The American Trade Consortium and the Soviet Foreign Economic
Consortium have signed a General Trade Agreement to initiate
commercial relations between ATC member companies and SFEC
organizations. The six member compaies of ATC are Archer-Daniels-
Midland, Chevron, Eastman Kodak, Johnson & Johnson, RJR Nabisco, and
Mercator."
--Source: Chemical & Engineering News, Vol. 67, No. 14, April 3,
1989
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Jobs
"According to the latest seasonally adjusted figures from the
Labor Department, total employment for chemicals and allied products
grew 4000 from the previous month to reach 1,080,000 in January. ...
On an annual basis, employment in January was up 33,000 from the same
month in 1988."
Chevron
"Chevron Chemical will proceed with a project to boost styrene
capacity at its St. James, La., plant from 600 million to 1.5 billion
lb annually."
Schering
"... 1988 sales of Schering Group, West Berlin, were up 12% to
$2.98 billion .... over 1987. Net profits rose 10% to $88.7 million."
BASF
"BASF Espanola S.A., the Spanish subsidiary of West Germany's
BASF A.G., is increasing its polypropylene capacity 110 million lb per
year. A plant is to be added at the company's site in Tarragona,
Spain ... This will boost capacity 167% at the site. In addition BASF
Rheinische Olefinweke GmbH, a joint venture of BASF and Deutsche Shell
A.G., is increasing polyethylene production with the construction of a
220 million lb-per-year plant in Wesseling, West Germany."
General
U.S. Chemical Industry Leaders for full-year 1988
Rank, 1988 Earnings, $Millions Rank, 1987
1 Dow Chemical $2410.0 1
2 Union Carbide 720.0 3
3 Monsanto 591.0 2
4 Arco Chemical 494.0 5
5 Quantum Chemical 382.7 6
6 American Cyanamid 305.6 4
7 Ethyl 231.0 9
8 Rohm & Haas 230.1 8
9 B.F. Goodrich 220.9 14
10 Air Products 219.5 10
"Gains in earnings among U.S. chemical companies in the fourth
quarter capped a year [1988] of strong growth for the industry.
Earnings for 29 major chemical companies increased an average of 56%
in the quarter ... Although this is the slowest earnings growth rate
for the year (the same group of companies registered growth of 66% in
the first quarter, 70% in the second, and 65% in the third), it still
portends well for the immediate future."
Profit Margin (a) for 29 Major U.S. Chemical Companies
Full-Year 1988
Sales Earnings Profit margin (a)
Company ($ millions) 1988 1987
Air Products $ 2,489.6 $ 219.5 8.8% 8.1%
American Cyanamid 4,592.0 305.6 6.7 6.3
Arco Chemical 2,700.0 494.0 18.3 13.2
Aristech Laboratories 1,065.2 164.5 15.4 7.6
Betz Laboratories 447.6 48.4 10.8 10.5
Cabot Corp. 1,769.9 61.8 3.5 4.2
Chemed 500.6 20.6 4.1 5.2
Crompton & Knowles 289.8 16.8 5.8 6.0
Dow Chemical 16,682.0 2410.0 14.4 9.3
Ethyl 2,011.5 231.0 11.5 11.2
First Mississippi 331.5 25.3 7.6 6.5
H.B. Fuller 685.0 21.1 3.1 4.3
Georgia Gulf 1,060.6 193.6 18.3 13.0
B.F. Goodrich 2,416.7 220.9 9.1 4.4
W.R. Grace 5,786.1 192.1 3.3 3.1
Hercules 2,802.0 142.7 5.1 7.8
International Flavors 839.5 128.7 15.3 14.3
International Minerals 1,054.1 87.9 8.3 4.2
Loctite 474.9 47.7 10.0 9.6
Lubrizol na na na 8.0
Monsanto 8,293.0 591.0 7.1 5.7
Nalco Chemical 994.2 106.0 10.7 9.5
Olin 2,308.0 98.0 4.2 4.0
Pennwalt 1,023.6 48.3 4.7 3.9
Petrolite 301.4 13.0 4.3 5.6
Quantum Chemical 2,921.9 382.7 13.1 11.1
Rohm & Haas 2,535.0 230.1 9.1 8.9
Union Carbide 8,324.0 720.0 8.6 4.1
Vista Chemical 790.8 127.5 16.1 10.0
Witco 1,585.9 71.6 4.5 4.4
GRAND TOTAL 76,022.3 7332.4 9.6 7.2
a: after-tax earnings as a percentage of sales
1988 Earnings Increased at Most U.S. Oil, Diversified Companies Oil & Gas Companies
American Petrofina 2,634.7 132.9 5.0 3.4
Amoco 21,157.0 2063.0 9.8 6.7
Ashland 8,208.0 239.7 2.9 2.5
Atlantic Richfield 18,324.0 1583.0 8.6 7.2
Chevron 28,900.0 1691.0 5.9 3.4
Exxon 87,542.0 5250.0 6.0 5.8
Kerr-McGee 2,743.2 110.1 4.0 3.2
Mobil 54,877.0 2038.0 3.7 2.4
Occidental Petroleum 19,417.0 358.0 1.8 1.1
Phillips Petroleum 11,490.0 650.0 5.7 0.3
Shell Oil 21,399.0 1204.0 5.6 5.8
Sun Co. 10,000.0 321.0 3.2 3.7
Texaco 35,138.0 2281.0 6.5 3.6
Unocal 10,085.0 267.0 2.6 1.9
Diversified Manufacturers
Allied-Signal 11,909.0 360.0 3.0 3.5
Borden 7,243.5 31.9 0.4 4.1
Du Pont 32,917.0 2190.0 6.7 5.9
Eastman Kodak 17,034.0 1397.0 8.2 8.9
Engelhard 2,350.7 63.7 2.7 2.4
FMC 3,286.9 129.2 3.9 3.1
Ferro Corp. 1,009.0 46.6 4.6 3.6
3M 10,581.0 1154.0 10.9 9.7
Morton-Thiokol 2,461.1 159.7 6.5 6.4
PPG Industries 5,600.0 467.6 8.4 7.3
Vulcan Materials 1,053.2 136.0 12.9 12.4
Tyler 664.6 14.6 2.2 3.8
Major Pharmaceutical Companies
American Home
Products 5,500.5 932.2 16.9 16.8
Bristol-Myers 5,972.5 829.0 13.9 13.1
Eli Lilly 4,069.7 761.0 18.7 11.3
Merck 5,939.5 1206.8 20.3 17.9
Pfizer 5,385.4 791.3 14.7 14.0
Rorer Group 1,041.6 61.8 5.9 5.9
Schering-Plough 2,969.4 389.8 13.1 11.7
SmithKline Beckman 4,749.0 475.7 10.0 13.2
Squibb 2,585.8 425.5 16.5 16.6
A.H. Robins 933.8 132.5 14.2 14.0
Upjohn 2,746.2 353.4 12.9 12.1
Warner Lambert 3,908.4 340.3 8.7 8.6
--Source: Chemical & Engineering News, Vol. 67, No. 8, February
20, 1989.
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