World chemical industry geography. World chemical industry

The chemical industry, along with mechanical engineering, is one of the leading industries both in individual developed countries and in the world economy as a whole. It arose long before the start of scientific and technological revolution, and according to formal characteristics, it should be attributed, at best, to new branches of production. However, in the second half of the XX century. this industry has undergone such revolutionary changes that make it possible to rank it among the newest. For chemical industry characterized by high R&D costs, continuous improvement of technological processes, the use of more and more diverse raw materials and intermediate products. In the most general terms, its significance is determined by the ongoing processes of chemicalization of the economy and everyday life. Nowadays there is practically no such area of ​​human activity where chemical products are not widely used.

The world's chemical industry developed at the fastest pace from the early 1950s to the mid-1970s. XX century Then, under the influence of the energy and raw materials crises, these rates slowed down somewhat: the chemical industry needed certain time for a new structural and technological restructuring. And then they again became quite high and, more importantly, stable. As a result, in the late 1990s. the global production of chemicals has reached $ 1.5 billion, so that in terms of the cost of manufactured products, this industry is now only ahead of electronics. In developed countries, in terms of its share in the structure of industrial production, it is second only to mechanical engineering.

The sectoral structure of the chemical industry is very complex: there are over 200 different kinds of sub-sectors and industries in it, and the range of types of its products reaches 1 million. the mining and chemical industry associated with the extraction and enrichment of mining and chemical raw materials - phosphorites, sodium chloride and potassium salts, sulfur, etc .; 2) the main chemical industry (production of mineral fertilizers, acids, salts, alkalis, etc.); 3) industry polymer materials, based primarily on organic synthesis and including the production of synthetic resins and plastics, chemical fibers, synthetic rubber, synthetic dyes, etc. The first two groups of sub-branches form, as it were, the “lower floors” of this complex industry, and the third - its “upper floor”. It also includes industries whose products are intended to meet the consumer needs of people (pharmaceuticals, detergents, photochemistry, perfumery and cosmetic products).

Over time, the importance of these subsectors and industries in the world economy has changed. Gradually, there was a transition from the predominance of the "lower floors" to the predominance of the "upper". This transition, in turn, led to a change in the role of individual factors in the location of the chemical industry. High raw material intensity, water intensity, heat capacity remained common for most chemical industries, but, say, electrical intensity, labor intensity, capital intensity, science intensity for the placement of industries of the "upper floors" are of much greater importance. Recently, the location of many chemical industries, which are especially "dirty", has been increasingly influenced by the environmental factor.

Under the influence of a complex combination of these factors, in the last two or three decades, a tendency towards the concentration of the mining and chemical and basic chemical industries (and after the energy crisis and some polymer production) in developing countries. These are precisely the industries that are more often represented by multi-stage plants. Accordingly, the sub-sectors and production of the "upper floors" began to focus more and more on developed countries. Gradually, production and technical ties between the two began to expand, which led to an increase in the role of such factors of location as economic and geographical location and transport. Despite the above tendencies, even today more than 2/3 of the world chemical production is produced by developed countries and only about 1/3 by developing countries. It should be borne in mind that many chemical enterprises in Asia, Africa and Latin America actually belong to the largest TNCs. Western countries such as DuPont, Dow Chemical (USA), Bayer, BASF, Hoechst (Germany), Imperial Chemical Industries (UK), Montadison (Italy), etc. Main industries of the main chemical industry - production of sulfuric acid and mineral fertilizers.

World production of sulfuric acid in the late 1990s was at the level of 120 million tons. It is obtained from native sulfur (Canada, USA, Mexico, Poland, Iraq, Turkmenistan), from pyrites, but recently - mainly by extracting from oil and especially natural gas during their processing. The latter method turned out to be more economical, technologically simple and environmentally less vulnerable. The top ten countries for the production of sulfuric acid include developed countries of the West (USA, Japan, Canada, France, Germany, Spain), and countries with economies in transition (Russia, Ukraine), and developing countries (China, Brazil).

Table 1.

Top ten countries in the world in terms of production of mineral fertilizers in 2006

* 100% useful substance.

World production of mineral fertilizers in the 50-70s XX century grew very quickly, in the 80s. slowed down, and in the 90s. (including due to a sharp decrease in its level in the CIS countries) actually stabilized at the level of 145–150 million tons (in terms of the useful substance). At the same time, there have been significant changes in the location of this industry, associated primarily with an increase in the number of manufacturing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America and their share in world production. Back in the 1950s. 40% of mineral fertilizers were produced in Western Europe (Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands), about 30% - in North America (USA, Canada) and about 20% - in the USSR, and by the end of the 1990s. the first place was taken by foreign Asia (about 40%), the second was North America (25), the third were the CIS countries (15), and only the fourth was Western Europe (12%). The composition of the top ten countries has changed accordingly: the number of Western European countries has noticeably decreased, but the number of Asian countries has increased (Table 1).

More than half of the total production of fertilizers (85 million tons) is accounted for by nitrogen fertilizers. At the beginning of the XX century. they were obtained mainly from natural raw materials (Chilean sodium nitrate), in the middle of the century they began to be obtained from ammonium sulfate, and at the end of the century - 90% on the basis of natural gas and, to a much lesser extent, oil and coal. Such a radical change raw material base entailed no less radical shifts in the geography of the industry. Today, the main producers of nitrogen fertilizers are located in foreign Asia (primarily China and India), while the share of Western Europe, Eastern Europe and the CIS countries has significantly decreased, and the share North America stabilized. However, Eastern Europe, CIS and North America remain the main exporters of nitrogen fertilizers.

Phosphate fertilizers in the world produce 35 million tons. Back in the 50s. XX century their main producers were also the USA, the USSR and the countries of Western Europe, but at the beginning of the XXI century. only the United States managed to stay in first place, while Russia and Australia - in the top ten leading countries. The remaining places in it were taken by Poland, Spain (Europe), China, India (Asia), Morocco, Tunisia (Africa), Brazil. In terms of the consumption of phosphate fertilizers, foreign Asia is now also far ahead of all other regions of the world.

The production of potash fertilizers is now at the level of 30 million tons.Geographic shifts in this sub-industry turned out to be less significant, so that the main positions were retained by North America (Canada and the USA), the CIS countries (Russia, Belarus) and Western Europe (Germany, Great Britain). , Spain). Nevertheless, the role of foreign Asia (Israel, Jordan) also increased, and this region came out on top in the consumption of potash fertilizers. This means that North America, Western Europe and the CIS have retained their role as the main suppliers of potash fertilizers to the world market.

The production of polymeric materials includes two sequential stages: 1) obtaining primary polymers based on organic synthesis processes and 2) obtaining final polymeric materials on their basis.

Both of these stages of production emerged in the first half of the 20th century, but in the second half they underwent truly revolutionary changes. The main one was the transition from coal to oil and gas, which began in the United States during the Second World War, and then covered, one might say, the whole world. This shift also led to a geographic reorientation of the industry. From now on, it began to gravitate no longer to coal basins (coal chemistry), but to oil and gas fields (petrochemistry). However, not only to such basins, but also to the routes of transportation of gas and oil - gas and oil pipelines, as well as to seaports, where oil is pumped from tankers. Even the coke-chemistry of coal basins in many cases (thanks to the supply of gas and oil pipelines to them) was transferred from one hydrocarbon feedstock to another, more efficient and profitable.

Among the primary polymeric materials obtained on the basis of the main organic synthesis are ethylene, propylene, benzene, etc. Ethylene, the production of which at the end of the 90s, is of particular importance. XX century exceeded 50 million tons. Back in the 50s. XX century almost all ethylene was produced in the USA, but in the 60s and 70s. large ethylene capacities were introduced in Western Europe, the USSR, Japan, and in the 80-90s. began their "migration" to developing countries, primarily Asian and Latin American, and to large oil-producing countries (the Persian Gulf countries, Indonesia, China, Venezuela, Mexico), and to many others (India, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Fr. Taiwan). According to some estimates, developing countries account for a third of the world's ethylene production.

Following this, sizes began to grow and shifts began in the geography of the production of final polymer materials. The main ones are plastics and synthetic resins, man-made fibers and threads, and synthetic rubber.

World plastics production increased from 1.6 million tons in 1950 to 140 million tons at the beginning of the 21st century. This means that, per capita, it averages a little over 20 kg. However, in developing countries, per capita production is much lower, while in the most developed countries it reaches 100-200 kg, and sometimes even exceeds this level. The group of leading countries in the production of plastics, as expected, includes the USA, Japan, Germany, and the Republic of Korea (Table 114).

World production of man-made fibers increased from 1.7 million tons in 1950 to 41 million tons in 2006. This also means that on average they are produced per capita about 6 kg. But in Western countries this figure is again much higher.

Significant changes took place in the second half of the 20th century. and in the structure of the production of chemical fibers, which are subdivided into artificial, obtained on the basis of natural polymers (cellulose), and synthetic, for which hydrocarbons serve as raw materials. Back in the 1950s. world production of artificial and synthetic fibers was in a ratio of 90:10, and in the late 1990s. - in the proportion 15:85. In all economically developed countries, in China, NIS Asia, synthetic fibers account for 4 / 5-9 / 10 of the total production. But in the CIS countries, the share of artificial fibers is still quite high.

The production of synthetic rubber in the world first began in the 1930s. in the USSR on the basis of the processing of vegetable alcohol. Now it is based on hydrocarbons. The world production of synthetic rubber increased from 0.6 million tons in 1950 to 12 million tons at the beginning of the XXI century, exceeding the production of natural rubber by more than two times.

Geographic shifts in the production of final polymer materials are evidenced by the fact that the share of Western Europe, North America and the CIS countries is gradually decreasing, while the share of foreign Asia is constantly increasing (in 2006, it reached 73% for chemical fibers, and for plastics and synthetic rubber exceeded 30%). Naturally, these new territorial proportions were reflected in the composition of the top ten countries for the production of final polymer materials. Back in 1950, 1960 and 1970. it did not include any developing country, but in the 1980s and 1990s. they have already begun to appear in it, and at the beginning of the XXI century. their representation has increased even more (Table 2).

Table 2.

Top ten countries in terms of production of plastics, chemical fibers and synthetic rubber in 2000-2002.

The "upper floor" of the chemical industry usually includes the so-called low-tonnage chemistry, the main place among which is the pharmaceutical industry, one of the most science-intensive. It is not surprising that 3/5 of it is concentrated in economically developed countries, approximately equally divided between North America, Western Europe and overseas Asia while the rest is in developing countries and countries with economies in transition. The USA, Japan and Germany are the leaders in this industry from individual countries.

In the regionalization of the world chemical industry, economic geographers (N.V. Alisov, B.N. Zimin) distinguish three of its main regions.

The leading place among them is occupied by the region of foreign Europe, which produces about 1/3 of all products in this industry. Before the First World War, Germany was the main chemical power in the world. During the interwar period, the chemical industry began to develop rapidly in many other countries in the region. This applies to an even greater extent to the period after World War II, when petrochemical industry, focusing mainly on imported raw materials. As a result, both petrochemicals and oil refining moved to seaports (Rotterdam, Marseille, etc.) or to the routes of main oil pipelines.

Overseas Europe only slightly inferior to the region of North America (30%), in which the USA plays a leading role. It was here in the 40s. XX century the first petrochemical enterprises appeared, which marked the beginning of a new stage in the development of the world chemical industry. In the first time after the end of World War II, which caused great damage to this industry in Europe, the United States produced almost half of all its products in the foreign world. The US chemical industry is very diverse. Its location was mainly influenced by the raw material factor, which often contributed to the huge territorial concentration of chemical industries. So, on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, the world's largest petrochemical region has developed, geographically coinciding with the oil and gas basin of the same name.

The third region of global importance is East and Southeast Asia. Its core is Japan (18%), where powerful petrochemicals originated in seaports on the basis of imported oil. Other sub-regions are China, where the production of basic chemicals predominates, and newly industrialized countries, specializing mainly in the production of synthetic products and intermediates. The development of the industry in this sub-region is also facilitated by the favorable economic and geographical position on the most important ocean routes.

In the 1990s. another, now a fairly large region of the chemical (petrochemical) industry, was born. It formed in the Persian Gulf. At the same time, the importance of the formerly very large region, now formed by the CIS countries, has decreased. This fully applies to Russia, which retained its place in the top ten countries for the production of nitrogen, phosphorus, potash fertilizers and synthetic rubber, but found itself outside the top ten countries for the production of plastics and chemical fibers.

Russia as part of the USSR had a powerful chemical industry, but it was represented to a greater extent by branches not of the "upper" but of the "lower levels". In the 1990s. the output of the chemical industry has dropped significantly, and now Russia has lost a significant part of the positions that it previously occupied in world production (for example, mineral fertilizers, acids, alkalis, car tires, etc.). The “upper floors” sectors suffered especially heavy losses. However, judging by the data in Table 114, Russia retained its place in the top ten countries for the production of synthetic rubber and returned to the top ten for the production of plastics. Along with this, in the production of chemical fibers (150 thousand tons), it continues to lag very far.

Literature

1.Kholina Z. N., Naumov A. S., Rodionova I. A. Socio-economic geography of the world. Reference manual. - M .: Bustard, DiK, 2006.

2. Economic and social geography. Foundations of Science. Textbook for universities - M .: VLADOS, 2003.

3.Economic, social and political geography the world. Regions and countries: Textbook for universities / Ed. S.B. Lavrov and N.V. Kaledin. - M .: Gardariki, 2002.

The chemical industry is a branch of heavy industry that includes the production of products from various types of raw materials through chemical processing. The chemical industry in Russia is one of the most important sectors of the economy; in terms of the number of fixed assets, the chemical industry of the Russian Federation is second only to the fuel and energy complex, mechanical engineering and metallurgy. At the end of 2014, the volume of goods shipped by Russian chemical industry enterprises amounted to 2.03 trillion. rubles. The share of the chemical industry in the output of the entire manufacturing industry is 9%.

But, despite the fact that the growth in the volume of shipped goods of the Russian chemical industry amounted to 7.4% in relation to 2013, the past year cannot be called successful for the Russian chemical complex. Production growth in 2014 was only 0.1%, that is, it remained at the level of 2013. And the increase in the volume of shipments is primarily due to the devaluation of the ruble. Also, production growth was negatively impacted by a 5% decrease in volumes in pharmacology. This is due to the fact that the Russian pharmaceutical industry depends on the supply of imported raw materials, the supply of which has decreased due to the sanctions imposed against the Russian Federation. Another factor that slowed growth was a major accident at the Stavrolen plant in Budennovsk. This significantly reduced the production of ethylene and polyethylene.

The chemical industry in Russia is one of the basic sectors of the country's economy. The enterprises of the chemical industry of the Russian Federation produce more than 70 thousand names of various products. The main consumers of these goods are agriculture, metallurgy, mechanical engineering,. The country's chemical complex itself consumes more than 25% of its products.

But in the world, the positions of the Russian chemical industry are not very high. By production chemical products Russia ranks 11th in the world with a share of 2.1% of the global volume. And the leaders are the United States of America and China, their share in world production is 18.6 and 15%, respectively. About 24% of production falls on the EU countries, and Germany has the largest share - 7.1% of world production.

More than 382 thousand people are employed in the chemical industry in Russia, and chemical enterprises of the Russian Federation are located, mainly in the European part of the country, in the Urals and in southern Siberia. This arrangement is based on several production factors:

• Raw materials. Plants for processing raw materials, as a rule, are located with places of production.
• Fuel and energy. Chemical industry enterprises are large consumers of energy resources. For example, for the production of 1 ton of synthetic rubber, it is required to spend about 17 kWh of electricity.
• Water. The chemical industry uses water as a raw material and auxiliary material. A large chemical plant producing water-intensive products uses the same amount of water per year as a city with a population of 400 thousand people.
• Consumer. To reduce the cost of logistics, chemical industry enterprises producing products for the needs of another industry are located next to the consumer.

The chemical industry is very complex. To date, there is no clear division of chemical enterprises by industry, since products from one chemical industry serve as raw materials for other chemical enterprises. Therefore, enterprises are divided according to the type of products they produce. The main types of products of the chemical industry:

• The main products of organic synthesis (products for the production of plastics, synthetic resins, fibers and rubbers, solvents, raw materials for the production of household chemicals);
• The main products of inorganic synthesis (acids, alkalis and salts are commonly used in industry);
• Agrochemistry (production of fertilizers and pesticides);
• Manufacturing of plastics, synthetic rubbers and fibers;
• Production of polymers and elastomers (polyethylene, polyester, rubber, polyurethanes);
• Production of building mixtures (cement, putties, etc.)
• Pharmaceutical production;
• Household chemicals production;
• Manufacture of paint and varnish products.

Production of basic chemicals

Production of the main chemical substances is the production of chemical products that will serve as raw materials for the production of final products of the chemical industry. One of the most important primary chemical products is sulfuric acid. It is used in the production of phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizers, detergents, varnish and paint and other chemical products.

In general, about 150 million tons of sulfuric acid are produced annually in the world. The world leader in its production is the United States, they produce about 50% of all sulfuric acid in the world. Russia produces about 15% of the global volume; in 2014, 9.8 million tons were produced. This is 4.8% less than in 2013. This is due to the fact that there are no clear agreements on pricing policy between suppliers and consumers of sulfur. At the end of 2014, more than 65% of sulfur was exported.

Disodium carbonate or soda ash is used in glass production, for the production of washing powders and detergents, and soap. In 2014, the production of soda ash grew by 2.8% - the best indicator of any major chemical product.

In addition to disodium carbonate growth, sodium hydroxide production increased by 1.3% in 2014. Caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) The most common alkali in the world is produced and consumed every year about 60 million tons of caustic soda. Sodium hydroxide is used in the manufacture of soaps, shampoos and other detergents, in the pulp and paper industry and in the oil refining industry. In 2014, Russia produced 1.1 million tonnes of caustic soda.

Ammonia is one of the most important products of the chemical industry; about 150 million tons of ammonia are produced annually in the world. This product is used in the production of nitrogen fertilizers, explosives, polymers and nitric acid. Also, ammonia is used in medicine and as a refrigerant in refrigeration equipment. Russia produces about 10% of the world's ammonia, with 25% of production being exported, which is about 16% of world exports. For 2014 in Russian Federation 14.6 million tons of anhydrous ammonia were produced, which is 1.5% more than in 2013.

Fertilizer production

Agrochemistry is one of the leading branches of the chemical industry in Russia. In terms of production volumes, the Russian Federation occupies a leading position in the world. For a share Russian production accounts for 6.5% of the production of all phosphate fertilizers in the world, this is the 4th indicator among all countries. The Russian Federation also ranks 2nd in the production of nitrogen and potash fertilizers, occupying 7% and 18.5% of the world market, respectively.

In total, 19.61 million tons of fertilizers were produced in 2014 in terms of 100% nutrients. This is the best indicator over the past 5 years. The positive growth against 2013 was 6%.

Every year the demand for nitrogen fertilizers increases in the world, the raw material for the production of which is natural gas. Per last years the geography of the production of these fertilizers has changed significantly, mainly due to the countries of the Middle East. In 2014, Russia produced 8.21 million tons of nitrogen fertilizers in terms of 100% nutrients, which is 0.5% less than in 2013. The slight decrease in growth was due to an oversupply in the market, over the past year, the demand for nitrogen fertilizers increased by 1.9%, while global production capacity increased by 3.8%.

The production of phosphate fertilizers is highly dependent on the raw material base. The largest deposits of phosphorus ores - phosphorites and apatites - are located in the USA, China, Morocco, and Russia. According to the results of the last year, the demand for phosphate fertilizers increased by 1.7%, while the production capacity increased by 3.5%, and in the whole world about 47 million tons of these fertilizers were produced. In Russia, about 3 million tons of phosphate fertilizers were produced in terms of 100% nutrients. This is 1.7% less than in 2013.

Potash fertilizers, like phosphorus fertilizers, are highly dependent on the raw material base. About 80% of world production comes from four countries: Canada, Russia, Belarus and Germany. In terms of world production, the share of potash fertilizers accounts for the smallest share - about 19%, while in Russia, the production of these fertilizers is 43% of the total. At the end of 2014, 8.4 million tons of potash fertilizers were produced in terms of 100% nutrients. This is the only type of fertilizer whose production growth has been positive. Compared to 2013, the volume of production of potash fertilizers in the Russian Federation increased by 15%. This is primarily due to the fact that the largest producer of these fertilizers in Russia, Uralkali, has revised its pricing policy and increased production volumes.

Polymer production

The production of polymer materials has had a huge impact on the development National economy in the second half of the 20th century. This branch of the chemical industry includes the production of plastics, synthetic rubbers and man-made fibers. All these products are raw materials for other sectors of the economy, mainly light industry and mechanical engineering.

The production of plastics is increasing every year. In 2014, the world plastics amounted to over 320 million tons. According to forecasts of specialists, plastics will increase every year by 2.5 - 5% and by 2050 will reach 400 million tons. The main consumers of plastics are the countries of Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States. In 2014, Russia produced 6.38 million tons of plastics in primary forms. This is 2.3% more than in 2013.

In the structure of primary plastics production, the production of ethylene and propylene polymers is of the greatest importance. Ethylene is the most produced organic compound in the world; about 110 million tons of this polymer are produced annually. Ethylene is used in the production of other complex polymers such as polyethylene (about 60% of all ethylene produced), ethylene oxide (15% of the total), vinyl chloride (12% of the total production). Subsequently, ethylene-based compounds are widely used as raw materials in the chemical and petrochemical industries. Another polymer, propylene, is used as a solvent, and it is also a component of various plastics, rubbers, detergents, and petroleum products.

In 2014, the production of ethylene polymers in Russia due to the accident at the Stavrolen plant dropped sharply and compared to 2013 decreased by 14.7%. in just a year, 1.59 million tonnes of ethylene polymers were produced. In the structure of primary plastics production, this is 25%. On the other hand, the production of propylene polymers continues to show good growth dynamics. In total, 1.06 million tons of this product were produced during the year, which is 16.6% of the total amount of primary plastics produced. Compared to 2013, production growth was 13.9%, and compared to 2012 - 35%.

Man-made fibers are another important polymer product. They are used in the textile industry and, according to the type of raw material from which they are made, are subdivided into artificial and synthetic. Man-made fibers are made from cellulose, while synthetic fibers are made from oil and gas raw materials.

In general, in the world, more than 60 million tons of chemical fibers are produced annually. The share of artificial fibers is only about 5 million tons, or 8.3%. And the main part of the market is occupied by synthetic fibers. The leading manufacturers of synthetic fibers are the USA (about 40% of world production) and the countries of Southeast Asia, China, South Korea, Taiwan (about 32% of world production).

In 2014, Russia produced 128 thousand tons of synthetic fibers and 20.3 thousand tons of artificial ones. The overall decline in production compared to 2013 was 4%.

Another important polymer material is synthetic rubber. Rubbers are used for the production of rubber and industrial rubber goods. Initially, natural rubber was used for the production, which is contained in the juice of the givea tree. At the beginning of the 20th century, synthetic rubber was invented and now more than 70% of all industrial production uses this material as a raw material.

In 2014, Russia produced 1.32 million tons of synthetic rubber. This is 11% less than in 2013. This drop in production is primarily due to a decrease in demand for rubber in world markets to 12.5%, as well as increased competition from natural rubber producers.

Manufacturing of finished chemical products

The main directions in the production of finished chemical products are:

• Manufacturing of plastic products;
• Manufacture of rubber goods;
• Production of building mixtures and materials;

In 2012, the maximum production of plastic products was reached in Russia. In total, 663 thousand tons of various plastic fittings and polymer pipes were produced. Also in 2012, a record amount of materials for covering walls, ceilings and floors was produced - 371 million square meters. m. In 2013, there was a decline in the production of these products due to an oversupply of products on the market. And in 2014 there was a slight increase. Production of plastic pipes and fittings increased by 2.2%, while production of coating materials increased by 1.9%.

The production of technical rubber goods is represented mainly by tire products. The last two years in Russia there has been a decrease in the production of vehicles. This especially affected buses, trolleybuses, trucks, agricultural and construction equipment. As a result, the production of tires for these types of equipment also decreased. At the end of 2014, 6.8 million units were produced in Russia. tires for trucks, buses and trolley buses. This is 5.4% less than in 2013, and 17% less than in 2012.

At the same time, the production of tires for passenger cars has been growing steadily over the past 5 years. This is primarily due to the fact that after European companies such as Pirelli entered the Russian market, the export of these products increased. Therefore, despite the decrease in the growth of production of Russian passenger cars, the production of tires for passenger cars continues to grow, and in 2014 it grew by 1.8%. In addition, since the production of tires and tires for passenger cars accounts for 68% of all tire products, the overall industry also maintains a slight increase in production. In 2014, the growth was 0.4%. And in quantitative terms, 51.1 million tires were produced, of which 34.6 million were produced. for cars.

In the production of construction chemicals in 2014, there was an increase in all major areas. This is due to an increase in the volume of construction in the past year. So the production of various types of cement in 2014 in the Russian Federation amounted to 68.5 million tons, which is 3% more than in 2013. The production of roofing and waterproofing materials amounted to 518 million square meters. m., which is 1.5% more than in 2013. Also, the production of blocks from ordinary and aerated concrete increased by 8% and wall ceramic tiles by 0.5%. At the same time, the production of paints and varnishes decreased by 0.8% to 1.24 million tons and asbestos-cement sheets and pipes by 14%.

Export and

The chemical industry of the Russian Federation is highly dependent on imports of various products, and at the same time, chemical products account for about 7.4% of all Russian exports. But exports in percentage terms are more than 2 times lower than imports. In 2014, the share of imports of various chemical products amounted to 16.7% of the total.

The main products imported into the Russian Federation are medicines, synthetic and natural rubber and plant protection products. These groups of goods account for about 30% of all imports. At the end of 2014, goods of the chemical industry were imported to Russia in the amount of USD 46.41 billion. Compared to 2013, imports decreased by 7%.

The lion's share of imports are medicines. In 2014, 105.9 thousand tons of medicines were imported to Russia for a total of 10.21 billion US dollars. Compared to 2013, imports of medicines decreased by $ 1.6 billion.

As for the export of chemical products, out of the 29 billion US dollars that were received for the exported goods, almost 31% falls on various fertilizers. In monetary terms, USD 8.98 billion was received. In total, at the end of 2014, 30.88 million tons of various fertilizers were exported (excluding 100% conversion of nutrients). Of these, nitrogen fertilizers have the highest total value, of which 12.15 million tons were exported for a total of 3.356 billion USD. The main exporting countries of Russian fertilizers are China, Brazil and the United States.

Compared to 2013, the export of nitrogen fertilizers increased by 2.9%, and potash by 60%. But, despite such an impressive quantitative growth, the amount of revenue for potash fertilizers, compared to 2013, increased by only 19%. This is due to the fall in world prices for potash fertilizers. In contrast to nitrogen and potash, the export of mixed fertilizers decreased by 9.7% and in monetary terms amounted to USD 3.04 billion.

An interesting fact is that the domestic Russian market provides only about 30% of the consumption of produced fertilizers. This is primarily due to the fact that cultivated plants grown in Russia are genetically modified for the minimum consumption of various chemicals. On average, 38 kg are used per 1 hectare of cultivated land in the Russian Federation. active substance, while in the USA this figure reaches 130 kg.

In addition to fertilizers, the Russian Federation exports anhydrous ammonia. In 2014, 3.63 million tons of this substance were exported for a total of USD 1.56 billion. Other main export products of the Russian chemical industry are synthetic rubber and methanol. In 2014, US $ 1.78 and 0.56 billion were received for the export of these goods, respectively.

The largest chemical companies in Russia

In total, there are about 8,300 enterprises and organizations operating in the Russian Federation, whose economic activity is assessed as “chemical production”. The largest of them are Sibur Holding, Salavatnefteorgsintez and Nizhnikamskneftekhim engaged in the petrochemical sector, as well as Uralkali, Eurochem, PhosAgro and Uralchem ​​producing mineral fertilizers.

Sibur Holding is the largest chemical company in Russia. The main activity of Sibur is the production of synthetic rubbers and polymers, as well as the processing of associated petroleum gas. The company produces 56% and 35% of Russian polypropylene and polyethylene, respectively. Sibur accounts for 27% of Russian production of SKD synthetic rubbers, 50% of SKS rubber, and the company is also a monopoly on the Russian market for the production of thermoplastic elastomers (TPE). At the end of 2014, the company's revenue amounted to 361 billion rubles. The company employs about 25 thousand people.

Salavatnefteorgsintez is a subsidiary of Gazprom, which owns one of the largest oil refining and petrochemical complexes in Russia. The structure of "Salavatnefteorgsintez" includes an oil refinery, chemical and gas chemical plants located in the city of Salavat in Bashkortostan. At the end of 2014, the company's revenue amounted to 190.63 billion rubles. The enterprises of Salavatnefteorgsintez employ 12.5 thousand people.

Nizhnikamskneftekhim is one of the largest producers of synthetic rubber and raw materials for its synthesis. In addition, the company produces various polymers: polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, etc. Nizhnikamskneftekhim produces 42% of the total world volume of polyisoprene, and is also the largest ethylene producer in Russia. The company's turnover in 2014 amounted to 137 billion rubles, the number of employees of the company - more than 17 thousand people.

Uralkali is the world's largest producer of potash fertilizers. In 2014, the company sold over 12.3 million tons of potash fertilizers. More than 80% of the company's products are exported to 60 countries around the world. The company has 5 mines for the extraction of potash salts and 6 factories for the processing of raw materials. In 2014, the company's turnover amounted to 136.5 billion rubles, the total number of employees is about 11 thousand people.

Eurochem is the largest Russian fertilizer producer. The structure of the company includes more than 10 processing plants. The main production products are urea, ammonia, ammonium nitrate, ammafos, ammonium nitrate, etc. Now Eurochem produces about 2% of all fertilizers in the world. In 2018, the company plans to start producing potash fertilizers, with an estimated production capacity of 2.3 million tons per year. In 2014, EuroChem's revenue, together with foreign assets, amounted to 121.94 billion rubles. The company employs about 22 thousand people.

Uralchem ​​is one of the world's largest producers of nitrogen fertilizers. According to this indicator, the Russian company ranks 5th in the world market and 2nd in the Russian one. Uralchem ​​is the leader in the Russian Federation in the production of ammonium nitrate and ranks second in the production of ammonia. Uralchem ​​has a capacity to produce more than 2.8 million tons of ammonia, 2.5 million tons of ammonium nitrate, 1.2 million tons of urea and 0.8 million tons of phosphorus and complex fertilizers per year. At the end of 2014, the company's turnover amounted to 78.2 billion rubles. The number of employees is 11 thousand people.

PhosAgro is a Russian chemical company, a leader in the production of phosphate fertilizers in the Russian Federation. PhosAgro is a vertically integrated company with full cycle production of phosphorus-containing mineral fertilizers. The structure of the company includes enterprises processing raw materials, transport and forwarding companies and the Research Institute "Institute of Fertilizers and Insectofungicides named after Ya. V. Samoilov". The company's revenue in 2014 was 123 billion rubles. The number of employees is 24.5 thousand people.

Especially for the portal "Perspectives"

Vladimir Kondratyev

Kondratyev Vladimir Borisovich - Doctor of Economics, Head of the Center for Industrial and Investment Research at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Another article from a series of materials on the situation in certain sectors of the economy in Russia and the world is devoted to the chemical industry, which in terms of labor productivity in the world is second only to pharmaceuticals, ahead of the automotive, electronics and other industries. However, in Russia it is perceived not as an integral part of competitive production that brings high profits, but only as one of the not very profitable (in comparison with direct oil and gas supplies) types of business. Privatization only intensified the deformation of the structure of the chemical industry that existed in Soviet times, and domestic consumers are increasingly focusing on foreign supplies.

The chemical industry is one of the most important basic sectors of the modern economy. Its products (70 thousand items) are widely used for the production of various consumer goods, as well as - in large volumes - in other sectors of the economy, such as agriculture, manufacturing, construction and services. The chemical industry itself consumes over 25% of its own production of chemicals. Among the most important consumers of its products are the automotive, textile, clothing, metallurgy and other industries.

Chemical industry products can be divided into four categories: basic chemicals (they account for about 35-37% of the global production of the industry), the so-called life-support products - life science (30%), specialty chemicals (20-25%) and consumer goods (about 10%).

Base chemicals, or "commodity" chemicals, include polymers, bulk petrochemicals, industrial base chemicals, inorganic chemicals, and mineral fertilizers. Over the past twenty years, this segment of the chemical industry has developed at a relatively low rate - 50-70% of the average annual rate of world GDP. The main role is played by polymers (including all types of plastics and man-made fibers), accounting for 33% of total sales of basic chemicals.

The main markets for plastics are packaging, housing, container manufacturing, pipes, transportation, toys and games. Among polymers, the largest specific gravity is polyethylene (PE), which is used for the production of containers, packaging, containers and pipes, films, various containers, and technical fibers. Another important polymer is polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which is used in the production of construction pipes, finishing and heat-insulating materials, to a lesser extent in the production of packaging and transport. Polypropylene (PP), in addition to the markets noted above, is used in the production of fabrics and carpets. Polystyrene (PS) is also used in the manufacture of toys, car parts, and the radio industry.

The most important feedstocks for polymer production are bulk petrochemicals and related chemicals, which in turn are made from liquefied petroleum gas (NPG), natural gas and crude oil. Sales of these materials represent approximately 30% of the total production of base chemicals. Large-scale chemicals include ethylene, propylene, benzene, toluene, methanol, monomeric vinyl chloride, styrene, butadiene, and others. These chemicals are used to produce most of the polymers and other organic chemicals, as well as special types of chemical products.

Other chemical derivatives and base chemicals - synthetic rubber, varnishes and paints, turpentine, resins, soot, explosives and industrial rubber goods - account for approximately 20% of the production of all base chemicals.

Inorganic chemicals (accounting for 12% of all base products in the industry) are the oldest chemical products. These include salt, chlorine, caustic soda, various acids (nitric, phosphoric, hydrochloric). Mineral fertilizers represent the least significant segment of basic chemicals (about 6%) and include nitrogen, phosphorus and potash fertilizers.

Life support chemicals (accounting for 30% of the total production of the chemical industry) include biological substances, pharmaceuticals, diagnostic drugs, veterinary drugs, vitamins and pesticides. This segment of the chemical industry is developing at the fastest pace, which is 1.5-6 times higher than the average annual growth rate of world GDP. In addition, it is the most knowledge-intensive sector of chemistry: R&D expenditures here reach 15-25% of sales. The production of life support chemicals is characterized by very high levels of specification and government regulation and oversight by special agencies such as the US Food and Drug Administration. Pesticides, also called crop protection chemicals, account for approximately 10% of this group of chemicals and include herbicides, insecticides and fungicides.

Specialty chemicals are products with a relatively high added value and are a fairly fast-growing innovative segment of the chemical industry with a differentiated end-market. The growth rates of this segment are on average 1.5-3 times higher than the growth rates of world GDP. These products are appreciated in the market for their special functional qualities. These include electronic chemicals (intended for electronic devices and equipment), industrial gases, adhesives , various protective coatings , industrial cleaning chemicals, catalysts. Specialty chemicals are also called "fine chemicals"

Consumer chemicals include soaps, detergents, and cosmetics. The growth rates of this segment of chemistry are generally in line with the growth rates of GDP.

The United States remains the world's largest chemical producer. In 2009, they accounted for 18.6% of the global production of chemicals (Table 1).

Table 1. World production of chemical products, USD billion

	The country	1998 year.	Share,%	2009 year.	Share,%
	Germany
	Great Britain
	Brazil
	South Korea
	Other countries

A source

In the United States, about 96% of all manufacturing industries are in one way or another associated with chemical production and its products. The US chemical industry directly employs 900 thousand people, and given the fact that each job in this industry creates an additional 5 jobs in related industries, a total of 4.6 million jobs in the American economy are directly or indirectly tied to the chemical industry. Chemical production is relatively high-paying: average wages here it is 78 thousand dollars per year, which is 43% higher than the average for the manufacturing industry.

The United States exports more than $ 170 billion in chemical products annually, which is 10% of American exports. The industry's annual investment reaches $ 15 billion, or 3.1% of sales. By comparison, the pharmaceutical industry has a capex of $ 5 billion, or 2.6% of sales. At the same time, in the last decade, the volume of capital investment in American chemistry has been declining: in 1999-2009. it decreased from 20 to 14.9 billion US dollars. are a net importer of chemical products. As the manufacturing base of the American manufacturing industry is shifted more and more overseas, giving way to the service sector, the consumption of chemicals is relatively declining, and the rate of investment in new chemical facilities is significantly lower than in other countries of the world.

Western Europe is a traditional large center of the chemical industry. In Europe (especially in Germany) this industry is one of the most important sectors of the economy. In total, the European chemical industry employs 3.6 million people, and the number of companies totals 60 thousand. The industry's products make up 65% of the European foreign trade turnover.

However, for the period 1999-2009. the share of this region in total global sales of chemicals decreased from 32% to 24%. Germany remains the largest producer here. It is followed by France, Great Britain and Italy. These four countries account for 88% of all Western European chemical production. Of the total chemical production in Western Europe, 60% are basic chemicals, including petrochemicals and basic inorganic chemical products, 26% are specialty chemicals (varnishes, paints, plant protection products, pigments and additives) and 14% are consumer chemicals.

The main driver of growth in the Western European chemical industry was the elimination of trade and non-trade barriers between European countries. There are currently 500 million chemical consumers in the European Union, with sales of $ 222 million in 2009 ($ 98 million in 1999). During the same period, domestic consumption of chemical products fell from $ 183 to $ 110 million, and the share of exports increased from 16% in 1995 to 26% in 2009.

In terms of labor productivity, the chemical industry is second only to pharmaceuticals (Fig. 1). At the same time, it is ahead of the automotive industry and the production of computers by 1.4 times, general mechanical engineering - by 1.7 times, the manufacturing industry - by 1.9, food industry- 3.3 times.

There are 29 thousand people in the Western European chemical industry. industrial enterprises... However, 96% of them are small and medium-sized enterprises with less than 250 employees. At the same time, 61% are micro-companies with the number of employees from 1 to 9 people.

Rice. one. Labor productivity level in various sectors of Western European industry in 2006 (index of conditionally net production per employee, chemistry - 100)

A source: Eurostat and Cefic Chemdata International.

In general, the Western European chemical industry is highly fragmented and has a number of structural weaknesses, such as insufficient production scale, relatively low integration of assets, high costs of chemical feedstocks. For example, 60% of all European polyethylene plants high density small in size (in comparison with world standards) and not closely integrated with the sources of chemical raw materials. As a result, production costs of European chemical companies are 50% higher than companies from the Middle East. Consolidation is becoming one of the most important areas for increasing the competitiveness of the European chemical industry. The experience of other capital-intensive industries shows that a sufficient level of profitability and efficiency is achieved when the four largest companies in the industry account for at least 70% of all production in the country. It is this level that provides the optimal combination of competition and price stability.

Despite the wave of mergers and acquisitions, the optimal concentration level in the Western European chemical industry has so far been achieved only in the production of styrene monomers. The level of production of polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride and polystyrene is close to the optimal level. According to experts, the European chemical industry will have to carry out another 20-25 major asset consolidation deals.

The share of the United States and other leading developed countries in the global production of chemical products has significantly decreased over the past decade due to the progress of this industry in developing countries. Industrialized countries have concentrated the bulk of the production of high-tech special-purpose materials through innovation and long-term targeted restructuring. At the same time, large-scale industries, which have not lost their importance as the main suppliers of basic products for the chemical industry, are actively transferred to regions provided with inexpensive raw materials and cheap labor force... For example, if the creation of polyethylene capacity in Venezuela per unit of production (1 ton) requires $ 0.9 thousand, then in Sweden it is almost $ 1.5 thousand.

China has achieved the most phenomenal results. 1998-2009 chemical production in this country has grown almost 6 times. China has firmly taken the second place in the world after the United States, threatening to overtake the leader in the coming years.

Rice. 2. Projected growth rates of the chemical industry in 2010-2020 by leading producer countries,%

A source:AmericanChemistry Council.

Rice. 3. New capacities of the chemical industry in 2010-2020,%

1 - Middle East; 2 - Asia; 3 - North America; 4 - other countries

A source:StrategicResourcesInc.

According to experts, by 2015 China will become the world's leading producer of chemicals, its share will be 12-14%. The United States will increasingly focus on innovation, process improvement and services. Production will shift towards pharmaceuticals while the growth of basic chemicals and crop protection products will slow down.

Chemical companies in developed countries can be divided into three groups. The first group is made up of “commodity players”, which mainly produce basic chemicals and plastics. They account for about a third of all global chemical industry sales. The most prominent representatives of this group are Dow Chemical (USA) and Shell Chemical (Great Britain). The second group includes companies that produce special types of chemicals for specific consumers. These include, for example, the Swiss Clariant Chemical and the German Ciba Specialty Chemicals, which mainly produce paints and pigments for the textile and light industries. They account for 25% of the world's chemical production. Finally, the third group is the so-called hybrid or diversified companies that produce a wide range of chemical products along the entire value chain. This group includes such giants as BASF, Bayer, DuPont, Mitsubishi Chemical, and accounts for 40% of world production. The world's leading chemical companies are large diversified corporations (Table 2).

Table 2. The largest chemical corporations in the world

	Company	Production volume in 2007, billion dollars
	BASF (Germany)
	Dow Chemical (USA)
	INEOS (UK)
	LyondellBasell (USA)
	Formosa Plastics (Taiwan)
	Saudi Basic Industries
	Bayer (Germany)
	Mitsubishi Chemical (Japan)
	AkzoNobel / Imperial Chemical Industries (UK)

A source: American Chemistry Council, Global Business of Chemistry Statistics March 2011.

The largest chemical corporations in the world are American companies such as Dow Chemical, LyondellBasell and DuPont, which are among the top five world leaders. In addition to them, there are 170 other large chemical companies in the United States. They have 1,700 branches and 2,800 factories around the world.

For a long time, chemical companies in developed countries have relied on traditional business strategies, trying to extract only additional added value from the main assets used. In the 1970s and 1980s, the focus was on improving basic sales functions and workflows. In the 1990s, there was a consolidation and restructuring, the purpose of which was to achieve the effect of the scale of production and reduce costs.

Prior to the 2008 crisis, this strategy brought some success to chemical companies in developed countries, and their effectiveness was higher than that of companies operating in other basic heavy industries such as metallurgy and woodworking. So, earnings per share for 1990-2008. in the chemical industry it grew 5 times, while in the automotive industry - 3 times, in metallurgy and woodworking - 1.5 times. The 2008 crisis brought down prices and stock prices, which have not yet recovered.

This is not to say that the strategy of using capital-intensive assets has exhausted itself. It has been adopted by the developing chemical companies in Asia and the Middle East. In the developed countries of North America and Europe, the prospects and possibilities of traditional strategies have been largely exhausted. Development prospects within the framework of the old capital-intensive strategy remain only when production is concentrated on the main competencies of companies, in those areas of the chemical business where the competitive advantages of a particular company are most clearly expressed. This applies primarily to diversified corporations that are trying to sell off non-core assets and buy those that are close to key types of business. Such a strategy, according to experts, can be successful in the next five to ten years. In the long term, chemical companies in developed countries rely on a knowledge-based strategy.

This strategy has five critical areas. The first is associated with a fundamental change in the business model and the use of information technology and the Internet to better serve consumers and organize new companies. We can talk about the development of a completely updated technological process for the production of existing chemicals based on the use of biotechnology and combinatorial chemistry. For example, the American company Archer Daniels Midland in 2008-2010 alone, using the method of biological fermentation instead of traditional chemical synthesis, managed to reduce production costs by 60%, and its net profit in 2010 amounted to more than $ 2 billion.

Another leader in the field of combinatorial chemistry is the American company Symyx Technologies. These technologies are helping the company develop new materials for the chemical and electronics industries. Traditionally, new materials are developed through time-consuming and expensive "trial and error" processes. The use of combinatorial technologies makes it possible to find new materials and compounds hundreds of times faster and, thus, to reduce the costs of experiments to 1% of the level of traditional ones.

Another area of ​​knowledge-based strategy is the use of the methods of financial companies in the conduct of business. In the chemical industry of developed countries, various venture capital companies, mutual funds, institutional investors such as Sterling Group, Kohlberg Kraves Roberts, Schroder Ventures are actively operating, which often acquire large stakes in chemical companies and restructure them in order to increase their market value. Venture funds actively support new biotech "startups" for their subsequent sale to large chemical corporations. For example, the Sterling Group, having bought Cain Chemical for $ 28 million and then using various management mechanisms such as joint profit sharing, attracting employees to management and property, as well as shareholder options, was able to reduce administrative and overhead costs by 60%, increase profits by 7%, production volumes by 25% and ultimately sell the company for $ 1.1 billion.

The third area of ​​innovation strategy is the creation of efficient markets. In the late 1990s, two companies, Chemdex and CheMatch.com, created an online marketplace for sellers and buyers of chemicals, plastics and petroleum products. By July 2000, Chemdex's market capitalization had reached $ 1.4 billion. And in the 2000s, many of the largest corporations - BASF, Bayer, Dow Chemical, DuPont - created their online chemical trading platforms. Transparent pricing and trading has enabled financial derivatives for chemical products such as PVC, low-density polyethylene and styrenes.

Another area of ​​the innovation strategy is the use of "hidden" assets. Many chemical corporations have built a wide range of non-tangible assets over time, such as brands, patents, customer data banks, institutional expertise, and others. However, only a few have been able to maximize these assets. DuPont is one of them. The company actively applies its experience in the safe operation of chemical plants. Its facilities recorded the lowest number of lost working days due to any incidents compared to other chemical companies. Some time ago, this company decided to engage in training others in safe production at chemical plants. Another example is the work of Dow Intellectual Asset Management, a global technology center for intellectual asset management, where an interdisciplinary team of experts is looking for efficient ways to license patents that Dow Chemical has acquired over the past decades.

Finally, many companies are trying to expand their participation in various parts of the value chain. For example, Dow Chemical, instead of selling the rubber it produces to medical glove manufacturers, is now producing it itself. Likewise, BASF Coatings no longer sells its paints to car manufacturers, but instead paints cars produced by leading carmakers. Using its advantages in understanding paint processes and chemical technologies, BASF has significantly improved the quality of work and reduced the consumption of paints and varnishes.

The phenomenal growth of the chemical industry in developing countries was associated not only with relatively low costs for the main chemical feedstock - natural and associated gas (Fig. 4), but also with intensive government support for this industry. So, until now, in many developing countries, import tariffs for chemical products are 1.5 times higher than in developed countries. However, direct government support is even more important.

Rice. 4. Natural gas production costs by country and region, USD / mln BTU

A source:AmericanChemistryCouncil.

Government Saudi Arabia after the oil shocks of the early 1970s, it decided to make more efficient use of associated petroleum gas from oil production and to develop its national chemical industry. For this, it was decided to turn the small fishing village of Jubail on the Persian Gulf coast into a modern industrial center. In 1976, the state-owned chemical company Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) was founded here. A year later, the active construction of the necessary infrastructure began. Due to a shortage of skilled labor, the company began to send its employees for internships in the United States and enter into partnerships with Western companies on assistance in the organization of technological processes.

To obtain technology, training and marketing support, SABIC by the end of 1977 entered into partnerships with companies such as Dow Chemical, Exxon, Mitsubishi, in exchange for their access to cheap sources of raw materials. By 1979, the first SABIC subsidiaries began to appear: AR-RAZI, also known as the Saudi Methanol Company (created in partnership with Mitsubishi Gas Chemical to produce methanol); SAMAD, or Al-Jubail Fertilizer Company (joint venture with Taiwan Fertilizer Company) for the production of nitrogen fertilizers.

Thirty years after its founding, SABIC has grown into one of the largest chemical corporations in the world, with approximately 30,000 people employed in 60 plants in 40 countries. The state retains full control over the company with 70% of its shares. The rest of the shares can be held mainly only by residents of Saudi Arabia and neighboring countries of the Persian Gulf.

Today SABIC is a broadly diversified corporation with segments such as base chemicals, specialty chemicals, polymers, mineral fertilizers and metals. In 2007, SABIC bought for $ 11 billion. American company GE Plastics and thus formed the Innovative Plastics division. According to Charlie Crew, President of SABIC Innovative Plastics, "We are taking aggressive steps to accelerate our development and production of the latest high performance, high quality materials, and our goal is to create the most innovative products and bring them to the market today." Indeed, SABIC invested about $ 20 billion in new projects in 2008, and by 2010 planned to increase the level of capital investments to $ 70 billion. This allows it to increase its production of chemical products by almost 2.5 times (Fig. 5).

Rice. 5. SABIC chemical production volumes, mln tons

Source: company annual reports.

China's modern chemical industry has largely been shaped by Western foreign direct investment. The largest chemical corporations in developed countries began to transfer their production facilities to China, following their main customers - automotive, communications and textile companies, attracted by the size of the market and low costs. Average labor costs in the Chinese chemical industry are less than 1 euro per hour (for comparison: in Poland - 5 euros, in Germany - 20 euros). Construction costs are significantly lower here.

The Chinese government encouraged the formation of state-owned chemical companies, such as China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec, founded in 2000), China National Chemical Corporation (ChemCnina, founded in 2004), etc. At the same time, foreign companies can enter the Chinese market only through creation of joint ventures with Chinese companies, with the transfer of advanced chemical technologies to them.

China specializes mainly in the production of basic chemicals (organic and inorganic fertilizers, ethylene, propylene, benzene, etc.). For this, a number of investment incentives are used, including the creation of industrial parks such as the Shanghai one. The German company BASF was one of the first Western chemical corporations to enter the Chinese market. In 2005, BASF and China's Sinopec launched a large plant for the production of basic chemicals and plastics in Nanjing with a capacity of 2 million tons of chemical products per year, employing 1.5 thousand people. This complex is capable of processing crude oil into the main base components: ethylene and propylene, from which plastics are then made for use in the automotive, shipbuilding, IT and toy industries. Subsequently, BASF began construction of large chemical complexes in Shanghai and Caojing.

China is more and more actively developing the segment of specialty chemicals, the share of which is planned to increase in the coming years from 30 to 45%. Particular emphasis is placed on the production of dyes used in the textile industry. Currently, China produces about 30% of the world's chemical fibers and threads. The country has already become the world's largest producer of synthetic paints and chemical pigments.

The Russian chemical industry is in eleventh place in the world in terms of production (Table 1). The share of the industry in the total industrial production of the country is 6%. Chemical enterprises account for 7% of fixed assets (fifth place after mechanical engineering, fuel industry, energy and metallurgy), providing 8% of the value of industrial exports and 7% of tax revenues to the budget.

Institutional transformations that have taken place since the beginning of market reforms have significantly changed the structure of chemical production by forms of ownership: to date, the chemical complex has the smallest group of enterprises that remain in state ownership. As a result of privatization, controlling stakes in a significant part of chemical enterprises passed into the hands of external investors. These are mainly oil and gas companies, mainly domestic, united in large vertically integrated financial and industrial groups such as Gazprom, Tatneft, Lukoil, etc.

The formation of consolidated chemical plants, the efficiency of functioning and competitiveness of which is due to the synergistic effect of the integration of oil and gas processing and petrochemistry, is a worldwide practice. However, in Russia, the consolidation of property based on proximity to raw material flows did not give a positive result, since it did not take place as a long logical development of the business, but practically simultaneously, in conditions of deep economic crisis and a sharp decline in domestic effective demand, when 60% of the industry's output was unclaimed.

As a result, domestic raw materials producers, who have monopoly positions and lobbying opportunities, perceived the chemical industry not as an integral part of a competitive business, bringing high profits, but only as one of the not most profitable markets (in comparison with direct oil and gas supplies). The new owners of chemical facilities are focusing on quick-return industries - primary petrochemicals and mineral fertilizers, which currently account for 64% of the value of industry products and 70% of the value of its exports.

From 1996 to 2000, among the 33 largest Russian companies, the share of petrochemical companies increased from 13% to 26%, those producing mineral fertilizers - from 18% to 24%, and mining chemical companies - from 8% to 10%. At the same time, manufacturers of downstream products intended for the domestic market either dropped out of the ranks of the largest companies (man-made fibers), or practically did not change their positions (plastics). And domestic consumers of chemical products are increasingly focusing on foreign supplies: since 2002, for the first time, Russia has become a net importer of chemical products with a negative foreign trade balance of $ 400 million.

Thus, privatization only intensified the deformation of the structure of the chemical industry that existed in Soviet times. In fact, the chemical industry was divided into two parts: basic large-scale and oil chemical production which are part of vertically integrated companies and develop in accordance with the interests of the owners of raw materials, on the one hand, and enterprises manufacturing products for the domestic market, experiencing pressure from foreign competitors and an ever-increasing shortage of raw materials, on the other.

Among the main problems that determine the features of the current state and the prospects for the development of the chemical complex are equipment wear (60-80%, one of the highest indicators among industries) and its continuing aging. The share of equipment over 30 years old is 65% in polyethylene production, and 70% in polyvinyl chloride production. Over the past six years, the total investment in the industry amounted to $ 14 billion. According to experts, no more than $ 5 billion was invested in new machinery and equipment, while most of it was spent on current technological repairs, power generation facilities and export terminals.

The state, counting on the activity of private investors, has almost completely withdrawn from financial support of the industry, allocating less than 0.1% of the total amount of industry capital investments as part of targeted investment support for socially significant industries (pharmaceuticals for diagnostics and therapy of oncological diseases, insulin, iodine preparations, feed proteins).

A significant obstacle to the development of the Russian chemical industry is the lack of large effective companies capable of competing on equal terms with the leading global players. Thus, the largest Russian chemical company, Sibur Holding, had a turnover of about $ 5.3 billion in 2009, which is about eight times less than Saudi SABIC in terms of this indicator and two times less than Japanese Shin-Etsu Chemical, which ranks twenty among the world manufacturers. The rest of the major Russian companies, such as Salavatnefteorgsintez, Eurochem and Nizhnekamskneftekhim, in turn, are two to three times lagging behind Sibur in terms of turnover. In addition, Sibur employs almost twice as many people as SABIC. In other words, in terms of labor productivity, Russian chemical companies are not at all comparable with world leaders (Table 3).

Table 3. Key performance indicators of the chemical companies SABIC and Sibur Holding in 2009

Chemical industry of the world - section Geography, Geographic picture of the world The chemical industry, along with mechanical engineering, belongs to the number of ...

The chemical industry, along with mechanical engineering, is one of the leading industries both in individual developed countries and in the world economy as a whole. It arose long before the start of scientific and technological revolution, and according to formal characteristics, it should be attributed, at best, to new branches of production. However, in the second half of the XX century. this industry has undergone such revolutionary changes that make it possible to rank it among the newest. The chemical industry is characterized by high R&D costs, continuous improvement of technological processes, and the use of more and more diverse raw materials and intermediate products. In the most general terms, its significance is determined by the ongoing processes of chemicalization of the economy and everyday life. Nowadays there is practically no such area of ​​human activity where chemical products are not widely used.

The world's chemical industry developed at the fastest pace from the early 1950s to the mid-1970s. XX century Then, under the influence of the energy and raw materials crises, these rates slowed down somewhat: the chemical industry took a certain amount of time for a new structural and technological restructuring. And then they again became quite high and, more importantly, stable. As a result, in the late 1990s. the global production of chemicals has reached $ 1.5 billion, so that in terms of the cost of manufactured products, this industry is now only ahead of electronics. In developed countries, in terms of its share in the structure of industrial production, it is second only to mechanical engineering.

The sectoral structure of the chemical industry is very complex: there are over 200 different kinds of sub-sectors and industries in it, and the range of types of its products reaches 1 million. It is clear that a grouping of sub-sectors of the chemical industry is necessary, which is usually three-member with a subdivision into: mining and chemical industry, associated with the extraction and enrichment of mining and chemical raw materials - phosphorites, sodium chloride and potassium salts, sulfur, etc .; 2) the main chemical industry(production of mineral fertilizers, acids, salts, alkalis, etc.); 3) polymer materials industry, based primarily on organic synthesis and including the production of synthetic resins and plastics, chemical fibers, synthetic rubber, synthetic dyes, etc. The first two groups of sub-branches form, as it were, the “lower floors” of this complex industry, and the third - its “upper floor”. It also includes industries whose products are intended to meet the consumer needs of people (pharmaceuticals, detergents, photochemistry, perfumery and cosmetic products).

Over time, the importance of these subsectors and industries in the world economy has changed. Gradually, there was a transition from the predominance of the "lower floors" to the predominance of the "upper". This transition, in turn, led to a change in the role of individual placement factors chemical industry. High raw material intensity, water intensity, heat capacity remained common for most chemical industries, but, say, electrical intensity, labor intensity, capital intensity, science intensity for the placement of industries of the "upper floors" are of much greater importance. Recently, the location of many chemical industries, which are especially "dirty", has been increasingly influenced by the environmental factor.

Under the influence of a complex combination of these factors, in the last two or three decades, a tendency towards the concentration of the mining and chemical and basic chemical industries (and after the energy crisis and some polymer industries) in developing countries began to appear quite clearly. These are precisely the industries that are more often represented by multi-stage plants. Accordingly, the sub-sectors and production of the "upper floors" began to focus more and more on developed countries. Gradually, production and technical ties between the two began to expand, which led to an increase in the role of such factors of location as economic and geographical location and transport. Despite the above tendencies, even today more than 2/3 of the world chemical production is produced by developed countries and only about 1/3 by developing countries. It should be borne in mind that many chemical enterprises in Asia, Africa and Latin America actually belong to the largest TNCs in Western countries, such as DuPont, Dow Chemical (USA), Bayer, BASF, Hoechst ( Germany), Imperial Chemical Industries (Great Britain), Montadison (Italy), etc.

The main branches of the main chemical industry are the production of sulfuric acid and mineral fertilizers.

World production sulfuric acid in the late 1990s. was at the level of 120 million tons. It is obtained from native sulfur (Canada, USA, Mexico, Poland, Iraq, Turkmenistan), from pyrites, but recently - mainly by extracting from oil and especially natural gas during their processing. The latter method turned out to be more economical, technologically simple and environmentally less vulnerable. The top ten countries for the production of sulfuric acid include developed countries of the West (USA, Japan, Canada, France, Germany, Spain), and countries with economies in transition (Russia, Ukraine), and developing countries (China, Brazil).

Table 113

THE FIRST TEN COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD BY THE SIZE OF PRODUCTION OF MINERAL FERTILIZERS IN 2006

* 100% useful substance.

World production mineral fertilizers in the 50-70s. XX century grew very quickly, in the 80s. slowed down, and in the 90s. (including due to a sharp decrease in its level in the CIS countries) actually stabilized at the level of 145–150 million tons (in terms of the useful substance). At the same time, there have been significant changes in the location of this industry, associated primarily with an increase in the number of manufacturing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America and their share in world production. Back in the 1950s. 40% of mineral fertilizers were produced in Western Europe (Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands), about 30% - in North America (USA, Canada) and about 20% - in the USSR, and by the end of the 1990s. the first place was taken by foreign Asia (about 40%), the second was North America (25), the third were the CIS countries (15), and only the fourth was Western Europe (12%). Accordingly, the composition of the top ten countries has changed: the number of Western European countries has noticeably decreased, but the number of Asian countries has increased. (Table 113).

More than half of the total production of fertilizers (85 million tons) falls on nitrogen fertilizers. At the beginning of the XX century. they were obtained mainly from natural raw materials (Chilean sodium nitrate), in the middle of the century they began to be obtained from ammonium sulfate, and at the end of the century - 90% on the basis of natural gas and, to a much lesser extent, oil and coal. Such a radical change in the resource base led to no less radical shifts in the geography of the industry. Today, the main producers of nitrogen fertilizers are located in foreign Asia (primarily China and India), while the share of Western Europe, Eastern Europe and the CIS countries has significantly decreased, and the share of North America has stabilized. However, Eastern Europe, the CIS and North America remain the main exporters of nitrogen fertilizers.

Phosphate fertilizer in the world produce 35 million tons. Back in the 50s. XX century their main producers were also the USA, the USSR and the countries of Western Europe, but at the beginning of the XXI century. only the United States managed to stay in first place, while Russia and Australia - in the top ten leading countries. The remaining places in it were taken by Poland, Spain (Europe), China, India (Asia), Morocco, Tunisia (Africa), Brazil. In terms of the consumption of phosphate fertilizers, foreign Asia is now also far ahead of all other regions of the world.

Production potash fertilizers now it is at the level of 30 million tons.In this sub-sector, the geographical shifts turned out to be less significant, so that the main positions were retained by North America (Canada and the USA), the CIS countries (Russia, Belarus) and the countries of Western Europe (Germany, Great Britain, Spain) ... Nevertheless, the role of foreign Asia (Israel, Jordan) also increased, and this region came out on top in the consumption of potash fertilizers. This means that North America, Western Europe and the CIS have retained their role as the main suppliers of potash fertilizers to the world market.

The production of polymeric materials includes two sequential stages: 1) obtaining primary polymers based on organic synthesis processes and 2) obtaining final polymeric materials on their basis.

Both of these stages of production emerged in the first half of the 20th century, but in the second half they underwent truly revolutionary changes. The main one was the transition from coal to oil and gas, which began in the United States during the Second World War, and then covered, one might say, the whole world. This shift also led to a geographic reorientation of the industry. From now on, it began to gravitate no longer to coal basins (coal chemistry), but to oil and gas fields (petrochemistry). However, not only to such basins, but also to the routes of transportation of gas and oil - gas and oil pipelines, as well as to seaports, where oil is pumped from tankers. Even the coke-chemistry of coal basins in many cases (thanks to the supply of gas and oil pipelines to them) was transferred from one hydrocarbon feedstock to another, more efficient and profitable.

Among primary polymer materials, obtained on the basis of the main organic synthesis, include ethylene, propylene, benzene, etc. Of particular importance is ethylene, the production of which in the late 90s. XX century exceeded 50 million tons. Back in the 50s. XX century almost all ethylene was produced in the USA, but in the 60s and 70s. large ethylene capacities were introduced in Western Europe, the USSR, Japan, and in the 80-90s. began their "migration" to developing countries, primarily Asian and Latin American, and to large oil-producing countries (the Persian Gulf countries, Indonesia, China, Venezuela, Mexico), and to many others (India, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Fr. Taiwan). According to some estimates, developing countries account for a third of the world's ethylene production.

Following this, the size began to grow and shifts in the geography of production began. final polymer materials. The main ones are plastics and synthetic resins, man-made fibers and threads, and synthetic rubber.

World production plastics increased from 1.6 million tons in 1950 to 140 million tons at the beginning of the XXI century. This means that, per capita, it averages a little over 20 kg. However, in developing countries, per capita production is much lower, while in the most developed countries it reaches 100-200 kg, and sometimes even exceeds this level. The group of leading countries in the production of plastics, as expected, includes the USA, Japan, Germany, and the Republic of Korea (Table 114).

World production chemical fibers increased from 1.7 million tons in 1950 to 41 million tons in 2006. This also means that on average per capita they are produced about 6 kg. But in Western countries this figure is again much higher.

Significant changes took place in the second half of the 20th century. and in the structure of the production of chemical fibers, which are subdivided into artificial, obtained on the basis of natural polymers (cellulose), and synthetic, for which hydrocarbons serve as raw materials. Back in the 1950s. world production of artificial and synthetic fibers was in a ratio of 90:10, and in the late 1990s. - in the proportion 15:85. In all economically developed countries, in China, NIS Asia, synthetic fibers account for 4 / 5-9 / 10 of the total production. But in the CIS countries, the share of artificial fibers is still quite high.

Production synthetic rubber in the world first began in the 1930s. in the USSR on the basis of the processing of vegetable alcohol. Now it is based on hydrocarbons. The world production of synthetic rubber increased from 0.6 million tons in 1950 to 12 million tons at the beginning of the XXI century, exceeding the production of natural rubber by more than two times.

Geographic shifts in the production of final polymer materials are evidenced by the fact that the share of Western Europe, North America and the CIS countries is gradually decreasing, while the share of foreign Asia is constantly increasing (in 2006, it reached 73% for chemical fibers, and for plastics and synthetic rubber exceeded 30%). Naturally, these new territorial proportions were reflected in the composition of the top ten countries for the production of final polymer materials. Back in 1950, 1960 and 1970. it did not include any developing country, but in the 1980s and 1990s. they have already begun to appear in it, and at the beginning of the XXI century. their representation has increased even more (Table 114).

Table 114

THE FIRST TEN COUNTRIES BY THE SIZE OF PRODUCTION OF PLASTICS, CHEMICAL FIBERS AND SYNTHETIC RUBBER IN 2000-2002.

The "top floor" of the chemical industry usually includes the so-called low-tonnage chemistry, the main place among which is occupied by the pharmaceutical industry, one of the most knowledge-intensive. It is not surprising that 3/5 of it is concentrated in economically developed countries, roughly equally divided between North America, Western Europe and foreign Asia, and the rest is in developing countries and countries with economies in transition. The USA, Japan and Germany are the leaders in this industry from individual countries.

In the regionalization of the world chemical industry, economic geographers (N.V. Alisov, B.N. Zimin) distinguish three of its main regions.

The leading place among them is occupied by the region of foreign Europe, which produces about 1/3 of all products in this industry. Before the First World War, Germany was the main chemical power in the world. During the interwar period, the chemical industry began to develop rapidly in many other countries in the region. This applies even more to the period after World War II, when the petrochemical industry came to the fore, focusing mainly on imported raw materials. As a result, both petrochemicals and oil refining moved to seaports (Rotterdam, Marseille, etc.) or to the routes of main oil pipelines.

Europe is only slightly behind the North American region (30%), in which the United States plays the leading role. It was here in the 40s. XX century the first petrochemical enterprises appeared, which marked the beginning of a new stage in the development of the world chemical industry. In the first time after the end of World War II, which caused great damage to this industry in Europe, the United States produced almost half of all its products in the foreign world. The US chemical industry is very diverse. Its location was mainly influenced by the raw material factor, which often contributed to the huge territorial concentration of chemical industries. So, on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, the world's largest petrochemical region has developed, geographically coinciding with the oil and gas basin of the same name.

The third region of global importance is East and Southeast Asia. Its core is Japan (18%), where powerful petrochemicals originated in seaports on the basis of imported oil. Other sub-regions are China, where the production of basic chemicals predominates, and newly industrialized countries, specializing mainly in the production of synthetic products and intermediates. The development of the industry in this sub-region is also facilitated by the favorable economic and geographical position on the most important ocean routes.

In the 1990s. another, now a fairly large region of the chemical (petrochemical) industry, was born. It formed in the Persian Gulf. At the same time, the importance of the formerly very large region, now formed by the CIS countries, has decreased. This fully applies to Russia, which retained its place in the top ten countries for the production of nitrogen, phosphorus, potash fertilizers and synthetic rubber, but found itself outside the top ten countries for the production of plastics and chemical fibers.

Russia as part of the USSR had a powerful chemical industry, but it was represented to a greater extent by branches not of the "upper" but of the "lower levels". In the 1990s. the output of the chemical industry has dropped significantly, and now Russia has lost a significant part of the positions that it previously occupied in world production (for example, mineral fertilizers, acids, alkalis, car tires, etc.). The “upper floors” sectors suffered especially heavy losses. However, judging by the data in Table 114, Russia retained its place in the top ten countries for the production of synthetic rubber and returned to the top ten for the production of plastics. Along with this, in the production of chemical fibers (150 thousand tons), it continues to lag very far.

End of work -

This topic belongs to the section:

Geographic picture of the world

Maksakovsky VP ... Geographical picture of the world Book I general characteristics the world ...

If you need additional material on this topic, or you did not find what you were looking for, we recommend using the search in our base of works:

What will we do with the received material:

If this material turned out to be useful for you, you can save it to your page on social networks:

Tweet

All topics in this section:

Book. I: General characteristics of the world.
Moscow, Bustard, 200

From the author
The first edition of this textbook, published in three volumes by the Upper Volga book

Number and grouping of countries in the world
The outstanding domestic geographer N.N.Baransky in one of his works wrote that the country in all its originality - natural, economic, cultural, political - is the main

World typology
The typology of the countries of the world is one of the most difficult methodological problems. Its solution is being dealt with by economic geographers, economists, political scientists, sociologists and representatives of other sciences. Unlike groups

Armed conflicts in the modern world
In the era of a bipolar world and " cold war"One of the main sources of instability on the planet were numerous regional and local conflicts, which both socialist and capitalist

State system: forms of government
Political system any country is characterized primarily by the form of government. There are two main forms of government - republican and monarchical. Republics arose back in

State system: administrative-territorial division
The state system of any country is also characterized by the form of the administrative-territorial structure (or administrative-territorial division - ATD). Usually, such a division is carried out

Political geography
Political geography is a borderline, transitional science that arose at the intersection of geography and political science. Formation of political geography as an independent scientific approach

Geopolitics before and now
Geopolitics (geographic politics) is one of the main directions of political geography. Like political geography, it examines the processes and phenomena occurring in the world at different

Electoral geography
Political and geographical regional studies include, as one of the central directions, the study of the territorial distribution of political forces. The richest material for such a study is provided by analysis

Political and geographical (geopolitical) position
Category geographic location, which characterizes the position of a particular spatial object in relation to others, is very widely used in geography. This category has several different

The doctrine of the geographical environment
Geographic environment is one of the most important concepts geographical science... It was proposed back in late XIX v. the famous French geographer and regional geographer Eliza Reclus and the Russian who worked with him

Geographic determinism (fatalism) and geographic indeterminism (nihilism)
In a broad sense, determinism is a philosophical concept based on the Latin word determinare - to define. It means a natural relationship, interdependence and causal

From the history of the use of minerals
Nowadays, about 250 types of minerals and almost 200 types of ornamental and precious stones... However, their involvement in the economic turnover took place gradually throughout the whole person.

World resources of mineral fuels and raw materials
Mineral resources it is customary to call minerals extracted from the bowels of the Earth. A modern economy uses about 200 different types of mineral fuels and raw materials. Classi

Mineral resources of the World Ocean
The oceans, which occupy about 71% of the surface of our planet, are also a huge storehouse of mineral wealth. The minerals within it are trapped in two different environments

World resources of geothermal energy
The lithosphere is associated with the resources not only of traditional types of mineral fuel, but also of such an alternative type of energy as the heat of the earth's interior. Sources of geothermal energy can be

World land fund
English economist of the 17th century. William Petty owns the words "Labor is the father of wealth, and the earth is its mother." Indeed, land is a universal natural resource, without which practically

Degradation of land (soil) resources
Under the degradation (from lat.gradus - step and the prefix de, meaning downward movement) of the land, soil cover is understood as the process of its deterioration and destruction as a result of negative impact

Desertification problems
In recent decades, it has become evident that aridization processes (from the Latin aridus

World water resources
The concept of water resources can be interpreted in two senses - broad and narrow. In a broad sense, this is the entire volume of hydrosphere waters contained in rivers, lakes, glaciers, seas and oceans, and

Major reservoirs in the world
A reservoir is a body of water in a riverbed or in a depression earth surface, artificially created by means of the construction of dams, cofferdam, excavation intended for flooding to

Salt water desalination
One of the additional ways to increase fresh water reserves is desalination (desalination) of saline waters. This method has been known for a very long time. Two millennia ago, people learned to receive

Earlier it was said that the bulk of the world's fresh water reserves (or more than 25 million km3) is, as it were, conserved in the ice sheets. the globe... At the same time, first of all

World hydropower potential of river flow
Hydropower (water energy) is the energy possessed by water moving in streams along the earth's surface. There are three categories of hydropower potential (hydropower

Energy resources of the World Ocean
The World Ocean contains huge, truly inexhaustible resources of mechanical and thermal energy, moreover, constantly renewable. The main types of such energy are the energy of tides, waves, ocean

World forest resources
In the scientific literature, there is often a description of the role of forests, forest vegetation as an integral part of the biosphere. It is usually noted that forests form the largest ecosystems on Earth, in which

Deforestation problems
Deforestation (deforestation) is the loss of a forest due to natural causes or economic activity person. The process of anthropogenic deforestation is actually

Biological resources of the World Ocean
The concept of biological resources of the World Ocean can be interpreted in two senses - broader and narrower. In the first of them, this is all the variety of animals and plants that live in the marine

World climatic resources
Climatic resources refers to the inexhaustible natural resources, including solar energy, moisture and wind energy. They are not consumed directly in tangible and intangible

Recreational resources
It is well known what an important place recreation has acquired in the life of modern people. The various activities of people involved in recreation are called recreational activities.

Anthropogenic impact on the lithosphere and its protection
Pollution of the natural environment with waste from industrial and non-industrial activities of people refers to all geospheres of our planet, including the lithosphere. In this case, speech is ideal

Anthropogenic pollution of land waters and their protection
Numerous and varied sources of pollution of land waters can be divided into natural and anthropogenic. Among natural sources large scale and truly global

Anthropogenic pollution of the World Ocean and its protection
Pollution of the World Ocean and its seas occurs as a result of direct or indirect input into the marine environment (in sea ​​water, to the seabed, to the coastal and estuarine areas of the seas) of various

Anthropogenic pollution of the atmosphere and its protection
Atmospheric air, which is a mixture of gases and aerosols of the surface layer of the atmosphere, is the most important life-supporting environment for all life on Earth. But it affects not only the person

Depletion of the gene pool of wildlife and its protection
In the narrow sense of the word, the gene pool (from the Greek genes - giving birth, born and from the French fond - the base) is a set of genes of individuals that make up a given population or species. But this term

The interdisciplinary nature of the problem "Society and the environment". The role of geography in solving it
“Society and the environment” is not only an international, interstate, but also an interdisciplinary problem. Almost all humanitarian, natural

The concept of population reproduction
Reproduction (natural movement) of the population is the most characteristic property of the population, which is studied by the science of demography. If you use the simplest available in her

Historical types of population reproduction and the theory of demographic transition
With the development of human civilization, the nature of population reproduction, quite naturally, also changed. Since human society has existed for thousands of years.

World population dynamics
Consideration of the general issues of population reproduction and demographic transition allows a better understanding of the dynamics of the world's population. Basically, it corresponds to historical types

Population explosion in the modern world
Mechanism baby boom in developing countries studied by demographers in detail and comprehensively. It became a natural consequence of the demographic situation in the countries of Asia, Afri

Demographic crisis in the modern world
Economically developed countries of the world, as already noted, have long passed the second phase of the demographic transition and entered its third phase, which is characterized by a decrease in indicators naturally

Demographic policy
Demographic policy is the purposeful activity of state bodies and other social institutions in the field of regulating population reproduction, designed to preserve or from

Sex structure of the world population
The sex structure of the population, that is, the ratio of the number of men and women in it, is an important indicator that affects many demographic processes, especially marriage, and through it, birth

Age structure of the world's population
A person's age is the period from his birth to one or another counted moment in his life. Since at different stages of his life a person performs various economic, social and demo

World workforce
Labor resources- a term used in economics to designate that part of the country's population that has the necessary physical development, mental abilities and knowledge

Population quality: health
As well as quantitative assessments population of the world, which were given above, in recent years are increasingly beginning to use a new concept - about its quality. Demographers consider the quality of the population

Population quality: average life expectancy
Life expectancy is one of the most important demographic categories, representing, as it were, a generalizing characteristic of human mortality. When defining it, they usually use the term "environments

Population quality: education and qualifications
Important components that characterize the quality of the population are also information about its educational level and the qualifications of labor resources. According to UNESCO data, in 1950 the share of

Ethnic (national) composition of the world population
The study of the ethnic (national) composition of the population is engaged in a science called ethnology (from the Greek ethnos - tribe, people), or ethnography. Formed as an independent

The main features of modern geography of religions
Despite all the historical changes, modern geography religions are quite stable. Christianity is the most widespread in the world. In n

Cultural (civilizational) regions of the world
“Culture” and “civilization” are concepts that are widely used both in scientific and journalistic literature and in everyday life. In the broadest sense, culture is understood as everything that is created by people in pr

Uneven distribution of the world's population
The population of the Earth has already exceeded 6.6 billion people. All these people live in 15-20 million different settlements - cities, towns, villages, villages, farms, etc. But these settlements are located on the territory of the earth.

International migrations of the population
Population migration (from lat. Migratio - resettlement) is the movement of people across the borders of certain territories associated with a permanent or temporary change of place of residence. Sometimes for

The main features of the geography of migrations
International migrations of the population were typical for most stages of human development and had a significant impact on this development itself, contributing to the adaptation of people to different conditions of creatures

Global urbanization and the "urban explosion" in the modern world
When defining urbanization as the process of increasing the proportion of urban population in the total population, the role of cities, the spread of urban lifestyles and urban culture, it is usually emphasized that

Urbanization and the environment
Cities of the world concentrating on their territory, which is very small in comparison with the entire land fund of the planet, more than 4/5 of the production of the total national income, 9/10 of the value of the production of processing

Population geography as a branch of socio-economic geography
Population geography studies geographic features the formation and development of the population and settlements in various social, economic and natural conditions... She sets the law

Scientific and technological progress and scientific and technological revolution
Scientific and technological progress (STP) and scientific and technological revolution (STR) are similar concepts of the same plan (like the concepts of "nature" and "geographic environment"), but still not synonyms. You can sk

Technique and technology in the era of scientific and technological revolution
The word technology (from the Greek techne - art, craftsmanship) means a set of tools created for the implementation of production processes and service of non-production needs in general

Computerization and complex automation
It has already been said that computers should be considered one of the main (if not the most important) symbols of modern scientific and technological revolution. Indeed, over the past few decades, electronics have literally invaded the human

Biotechnology and bioindustry
Biotechnology is understood as a set of methods and techniques for the use of living organisms, biological products and biotechnical systems in the industrial sphere. In other words, biotechnology

Stages of development of the world economy
There are many definitions of such important concepts as “ world economy", "world economy". The most successful is the one that characterizes the world economy as historically with

Development cycles of the world economy
Cyclic development is generally characteristic of many processes occurring in nature and society. Therefore, they talk about natural, ecological, general civilization, demographic, scientific, integration

Sectoral structure of the world economy
Under sectoral structure farms understand the totality of its parts (branches and sub-branches), historically formed as a result of the social division of labor. It is characterized by equity

Models of the spatial structure of the world economy
As the world economy develops, not only its sectoral structure, but also its spatial structure, the hierarchical subordination of its individual parts, change and become more complex. This is a natural process

Asia Pacific in the world economy
The polystructural spatial model of the world economy not only does not exclude, but, on the contrary, to some extent presupposes the movement of the main "center of gravity" of this economy from one region

International economic integration
International economic integration is one of the most striking manifestations of internationalization economic life in the second half of the XX century. It can take different forms, reach different

Transnationalization of the world economy
It is customary to refer to transnational corporations (TNCs) as large financial and industrial associations, national or (less often) international in terms of capital, which operate in two or more countries.

Territory as a factor of placement
NN Baranskiy, Yu. G. Saushkin, IM Maergoiz wrote a lot about the territory as a factor of placement. V.V. Pokshishevsky, emphasizing the special importance of the territorial approach for our science, said that

Economic and geographical location as a factor of placement
Economic-geographical location (EGL) is one of the important concepts of economic and social geography, widely used in educational geography. N.N.Bara made a great contribution to its formation

Natural resource factor of placement
The natural resource factor is one of the classical factors of placement, which is considered in many works of domestic and foreign geographers. For a long time, he proved

Placement transport factor
The transport factor is another classic placement factor productive forces... About its effect on geographic division works were written by N.N. Baransky, N.N. Kolosovsky, Yu.G. Saushkin, I.M.

Territorial concentration and deconcentration of production
The territorial concentration of production is an accumulation, its concentration in a limited space. The benefits of such a concentration are to reduce the cost of production, increase its revenues.

Territorial forms of organization of science
In the second half of the XX century. within the framework of socio-economic geography, a new direction began to form, which received the name geography of science. And although this direction as a whole is not yet available

Regional policy
Regional policy is a system of legislative, administrative, economic and environmental measures contributing to a more rational distribution of productive forces, with

Study of the world economy in socio-economic geography
The world economy is a complex interdisciplinary concept. Firstly, this is a historical category, since the formation of the world economy is the result of a thousand-year evolution of production

Industry of the world
Despite the fact that with the beginning of the transition to a post-industrial society, the share of industry in world GDP and employment of the economically active population began to decrease, industry remains the most

World energy development paths
Mastering energy sources has always been a way of human survival. And now its consumption remains one of the most important not only economic, but also social indicators, largely predetermined

Geographic aspects of the development of world energy
World production and consumption of fuel and energy also have pronounced geographic aspects and regional differences. The first line of such differences is between economically developed and developed

Oil industry of the world
Oil industry- the leading branch of the global fuel and energy industry. It has a very strong influence on the entire world economy, and also on world politics. The oil industry is different

Consumption, export and import of oil and oil products
Above was considered, and at different levels, the geography of world oil production. However, the geography of consumption of oil and petroleum products differs from it very much. This is clearly evidenced by

World gas industry
Natural gas as a fuel has many positive properties - high calorific value, good transportability, which is more environmentally friendly than oil and coal.

International trade in liquefied natural gas
Since the 1970s. liquefied natural gas (LNG) has become a new factor in the global energy economy. The interest in this energy carrier was due to many reasons.

Extraction of oil and natural gas in the World Ocean
The production of oil and natural gas in the waters of the World Ocean has a rather long history. Primitive methods of offshore oil production were carried out back in the 19th century. in Russia (in the Caspian), in the USA (in Caliph

Coal industry of the world
Coal industry continues to be an important branch of the global energy sector, and coal fuel occupies the "second line" in the structure of world energy consumption. The development of this industry is different

World Electricity
The electric power industry is a part of the fuel and energy complex, forming in it, as they sometimes say, the "upper floor". We can say that it is one of the basic sectors of the world economy.

Nuclear energy of the world
Nuclear (nuclear) energy can be considered as one of the important subsectors of world energy, which in the second half of the XX century. began to make a significant contribution to the production of electricity.

World uranium industry
The uranium industry, working for and closely associated with nuclear power, includes two main production stages. The first of these is the extraction of uranium ores, which are found in sandstone

The category of unconventional renewable energy sources (NRES), which is also often called alternative, is usually classified as a few that have not yet received widespread

As already noted, the practically inexhaustible energy sources of the World Ocean also belong to the category of non-traditional ones. But since the World Ocean is a very special

Mining industry of the world
The mining industry, which forms the basis of the extractive industry, is referred to as primary industries, since it deals with primary natural resources- minerals

World iron ore industry
Mining of iron ores is one of the largest subsectors of the mining industry. But since iron ore used in ferrous metallurgy, organizationally this production in many countries, including

World ferrous metallurgy
Ferrous metallurgy is one of the basic branches of industry, or branches of its "lower floor", associated with the processing of various types of raw materials, mainly mineral. Its value is determined

World non-ferrous metallurgy
Non-ferrous metallurgy, as an industry, has a complex internal structure. It includes the extraction and beneficiation of non-ferrous metal ores, their metallurgical processing (obtaining concentrate, rough and

World aluminum industry
It is known that aluminum is the most widespread metal (8.8%) in earth crust... And the fact that in metallurgy it ranks second after iron, and in ma

Mechanical engineering of the world
Mechanical engineering is the main one in terms of the number of employees, in terms of the cost of production and, accordingly, in terms of the share in all industrial production branch of modern industry. This is due to the fact that it is it

World Automotive Industry
The automotive industry, which originated at the end of the 19th century, is usually referred to as new industries. But among this group of industries, it continues to play a very special role. By the scale of influence

Global electronics industry
The electronics industry is often called the brainchild of the scientific and technological revolution, and it really is. At first, it originated in the bowels of electrical engineering (radio engineering), but then actually separated from it, turning into

World timber industry
The importance of the forest industry is determined by the role that wood and wood products continue to play in the economy and in the daily life of people. It should also be borne in mind that forest resources are classified as

World textile industry
Textile industry- the most important branch of light industry, providing about half of the total volume of its production, and also occupying the first place in it in terms of the number of employees. Wasps

Industry and environment
Industry is the main pollutant environment affecting all spheres geographic envelope... This is because the industry as a whole covers all stages of the resource cycle -

World agriculture
Agriculture is the second most important branch of material production after industry. Originated in the era of the Neolithic revolution, it over the next ten millennia

Green Revolution "in the agriculture of developing countries
In the 60s and 70s. XX century a new concept has entered the international lexicon - the "green revolution", which refers primarily to developing countries. This is a complex, multicomponent concept, which, with

Biotechnological revolution in economically developed countries
As already noted, the industrialization of agriculture (or the first "green revolution") took place in the developed countries of the West for quite some time. In the 70s and 80s. XX century you have reached these countries very much

Centers of origin of cultivated plants and domestic animals and their further migrations
The centers of origin of cultivated plants and domestic animals are those areas of the Earth where certain types of plants useful to humans have arisen or have been cultivated and where they are most concentrated.

Grain farming of the world
The main role in providing the population of the Earth with food, and some industries with raw materials has always played and continues to play plant growing (agriculture). In plant growing, the first me

Other food crops
Despite the special role of grain crops in providing the world population with food, more than half of all cultivated areas on the planet are occupied by others, also mainly by food

Non-food crops
Non-food crops include, first of all, fibrous crops, rubber plants, and also, with some degree of convention, narcotic crops. To the most important group of drags

Livestock of the world
Livestock is the second major branch of world agriculture, comparable in importance to crop production, and surpassing it in many countries and regions. In the structure of this industry, you are accepted

Production and consumption of livestock products
Livestock products are meat, milk, butter, cheese, eggs, wool. All of it, with the exception of wool, constitutes an important part of the food "basket", and wool serves as a raw material for textile production.

Agriculture and environment
Agriculture is one of the important factors of the impact of human activity on the environment, and much earlier than industry. Therefore, the problems of rational economic

World fishing
Fishing can be considered as one of the types of nature use, consisting in the extraction of fish and other seafood (sea animals, invertebrates, algae), although, perhaps, it was followed

Aquaculture
Comparatively limited possibilities of self-reproduction of biological resources of the World Ocean force us to look for new approaches that would ensure the flow of fish products to the world market. Main

Whaling
The need for a careful attitude to the biological resources of the World Ocean can be shown by the example of whaling. Whales are a group of aquatic mammals, which are divided into two

World transport system
We have already mentioned the role of transport as one of the main infrastructural sectors in the normal, rhythmic functioning of the world economy. As a sensitive barometer of the course of development of this economy,

World rail transport
Railway transport, which originated in the era of the industrial revolution, remained the main mode of transport throughout the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. The first railroad on steam

World road transport
The entire history of road transport fits within the framework of one XX century, during which it experienced, figuratively speaking, its “antiquity” and “Middle Ages”, and “new” and “modern” times. Nowadays

World pipeline transport
Along with railway and automobile pipelines water transport refers to land transport. However, while both goods and passengers are transported by rail and road, the pipe

World shipping
Shipping is the oldest transport industry that originated in the distant past. And now, sea transport is a very important component of the world transport system, without which the normal function

World Marine Fleet
Nautical merchant navy are usually characterized by two main indicators: the number of vessels in operation and their tonnage, which is determined either by cargo capacity or by cargo capacity.

World seaports
The total number of seaports in the literature is estimated in different ways. LI Vasilevsky at one time gave a figure of 25-30 thousand, taking into account, apparently, and the smallest ports of purely local importance. Meets

International maritime channels and straits
Considering the formation of the international geographical division of labor, N.N.Baransky wrote about such key locations, including isthmuses and straits, the possession of which allows interception

Inland waterway transport
As already mentioned, the total length of inland waterways in the world is 550 thousand km. Until the early 1990s. in terms of the length of navigable routes, the USSR held the first place in the world (123 thousand km), the second

World Air Transport
Air transport, like road transport, in recent decades has shown a steady progressive development, for which, even in the presence of rare and short-term recessions, booms are characteristic of

Transport and environment
Fast development different types transport in the second half of the twentieth century. led to an increase in their negative impact on the environment. It is expressed in chemical pollution environment with waste from incinerated

International economic relations
International economic relations are understood as the system of economic ties between the national economies of individual countries. This is a special field of activity based on international

Open economy
In recent decades, an important new concept of an open economy has entered economic and geographical use, in the very general form meaning an increase in the role of world economic relations in the development

Free economic zones
The active inclusion of an increasing number of countries in the world in the international geographical division of labor, their growing into world economic relations, their implementation of the basic principles of economic openness, home

Dynamics and structure of world trade
World (international) trade is the oldest and most traditional form of external economic ties... Suffice it to recall that the global market, in general terms, was formed in the era of the Great Ge

Geographic distribution of world trade
The geographical distribution of world trade can be considered at different levels, meaning the participation in it of three groups of countries, large regions and individual states. Share of three groups of st

World service market
Along with the traditional trade in goods, in the last two to three decades, trade in services has become increasingly widespread, which are expressed not in a material product, but in a definite

Offshore zones of the world
As already noted, among the free economic zones, there is a group of service zones specializing in the provision of various kinds of services. Offshore zones play a special role among them.

Regulation of international trade in goods and services
Attempts to regulate international trade by government have been made before, but in most cases they were in the form of protectionism and were expressed in restricting the import of goods and

World financial market
Along with the world market for goods and services, the world economy has also formed a world financial market, which has a rather complex structure (Fig. 120). The basis of this market is the export of capital

World financial centers
The formation of the world market of entrepreneurial and, to an even greater extent, loan capital, the expansion of the markets for gold, loans, currency, securities led to the complication of their structure and the formation of a price

Regulation of international monetary and financial relations
International monetary and financial relations arose even when money began to function in payment relations between countries. Gradually they became more and more complicated, and now, in the era of global

International industrial cooperation
In turn, it is the result of two complementary processes - international specialization and international cooperation of production. International specialization

International scientific and technical cooperation
Scientific and technical cooperation is an even younger form of international intangible economic relations. It is largely due to the scientific and technological revolution and the development of interstate specialization and

Development of international tourism
International tourism is one of the forms of exchange of services. The tourism boom that has swept the world in recent decades is based on specific economic, social and other reasons.

Geography of international tourism
The spread of modern international tourism is characterized by significant territorial unevenness. In the very general view it reflects different levels of social and economic development of Seve

World heritage of mankind
Back in 1972, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted the international Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and natural heritage... Simultaneously

Globalization: a controversial process
At the turn of the XX and XXI centuries. the concept of globalization has become truly key, or, as is often said, significant. The study of the phenomenon of globalization attracts scientists, public and political figures,

Global information space
Acceleration of the processes of globalization at the end of the XX century. is largely due to the real information revolution that took place at this time, which led to the creation of global information networks.

Global problems of humanity
In the course of the development of civilization, humanity has repeatedly faced complex problems, sometimes of a planetary nature. But still it was a distant prehistory, a kind of "incubation period"

Towards a safe and nuclear-free world
For several post-war decades, the problem of preventing a world war was the most important, the most priority global problem of mankind. Known to have imposed wars

Degradation of the global ecological system
Until recently, the main problem of the survival of mankind was the problem of war and peace, and today most experts agree that this has become a global environmental problem

Territorial analysis of the world's environmental problems
A lot has been devoted to the territorial analysis of the world's environmental problems. geographic research, in which these problems are considered at different levels - continents and parts of the world, macroregions

Areas of acute ecological situations in Russia and other CIS countries
Despite the fact that the world's largest North Eurasian center of environmental stabilization is located within Russia, thanks to which natural ecosystems have been preserved on 2/3 of its territory

Impact of natural and man-made disasters on the global ecological situation
Recently, a new concept of risk has entered into scientific use - both for an individual, and for the state, and for the entire world community. Among the possible risks, there are species

Ways to solve the global environmental problem
Nowadays, environmental safety has become an important component of the national security of states. This term is understood as the state of protection of each individual, society,

Specially protected natural areas of the world
In the context of the ongoing degradation of the natural environment under the influence of various types of anthropogenic activities, it is important, and from a geographical point of view, it is of particular importance.

The future of the baby boom
Among the global problems of our time, a very important place belongs to the demographic problem as another priority problem of the survival of mankind. Some authors even call her n

Development paths for global urbanization
As already shown, urbanization in the second half of the XX century. has become one of the most important all-encompassing, global processes of socio-economic development. A. E. Sluka, not without reason, called him “t

The global food problem and its geographic aspects
Another complex global problem is food. This is a very multifaceted problem - both natural and socio-economic. It is reflected on almost all sides of the

Solutions to the global food problem
Since the onset of the global food problem, there have been discussions about how to solve it. Despite some discrepancies, in the most general terms, we can obviously talk about two main

The global energy problem and ways to solve it
The global energy problem is, first of all, the problem of a reliable supply of fuel and energy to mankind. "Bottlenecks" in such provision were found more than once in past epochs.

The global raw materials problem and ways to solve it
The global raw materials problem has a number of similarities with the energy problem, so it is not surprising that they are sometimes considered together as a single fuel and raw materials problem. Valid

The global problem of the development of the World Ocean
At all stages of the development of human civilization, the World Ocean was one of the most important sources of maintaining life on Earth. Its contribution to climate stabilization, the circulation of substances, about

UN Convention on the Law of the Sea
In addition to the economic, settlement and environmental aspects, the global problem of the World Ocean has another extremely important aspect, connected with both the economic and environmental, but so

Peaceful exploration of outer space
Space is a global environment, a common heritage of mankind. Therefore, the problem of its peaceful development is one of the global ones. On the one hand, it affects the interests of all states of the planet, and on the other hand

Protecting and promoting the health of the world's population
Among the global problems of our time, the problem of protecting and strengthening the health of the human race occupies, one might say, a special place. And because she is one of the oldest problems with which

Global education
Until very recently, education problems were considered mainly at the level of individual countries, or rather, their school and university systems. In pedagogy, a special branch of knowledge has developed, called

Underdevelopment as a global problem
Among the priority global problems of mankind there is one, which, as it were, absorbs many others, and first of all, demographic and food problems. In a broad sense, it is n

Other global problems
Along with the global problems described above, which are usually classified as priorities, there are other complex problems that have recently also acquired a global character.

Global forecasts
With the emergence of global problems in most sciences, there has been an increased interest in the future, in the prospects for development. This future is explored at all levels - local, country, sub-regional,

Global projects
Global projects are called large engineering projects aimed at transforming the nature of individual parts of our planet in order to achieve a large economic effect. Most famous

The hypothesis of global climate change of the Earth
Recently, the world community has expressed increasing concern about the forecast for the 21st century. changes in the Earth's climate. The main thing in this change is the already begun increase in the average pace

The hypothesis of stabilization of the Earth's population
The question of the possibility of stabilizing the population of the Earth has long been of concern to mankind. Interest in it usually intensifies during periods of demographic revolutions. This was the case at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries

Ecumenopolis hypothesis
The gradual growth of the urban population, the "urban explosion", the increase in the number of supercities in and of themselves alter and complicate the urbanistic picture of the world. This also applies to spatial

Sustainable development strategy
On the question of overall assessment state of the art civilization, there are different opinions - from relatively optimistic to extremely pessimistic. As an example of a very pessimistic assessment

Global changes and geography
Global problems of humanity have become an important object of interdisciplinary research, in which social, natural and technical sciences participate. Some of these sciences include

Common to all topics
Alisov N.V., Khorev B.S. Economic and social geography of the world (general overview): Textbook for universities. - M .: Gardariki, 2000. Bestuzhev-Lada IV. Alternative

Themes 4 and 5
Abramov V.L. World economy. Tutorial... - M .: Dashkov and K ", 2006. Alexandrova A. Yu. International tourism: Textbook. - M .: Aspect Press, 2004.

Mira provides industry and construction with new materials, fertilizers and plant protection products.

Peculiarities:

• one of the dynamic industries that largely determines the scientific and technological progress along with;
• high science intensity (at the electronics level);
• the chemical industry is a very capacious consumer of raw materials, the specific costs of which in some cases significantly exceed the weight of the finished product (production of soda, synthetic rubber, plastics, chemical fibers, potash and nitrogen fertilizers, etc.).
• in addition to a large amount of raw materials, industries (production of synthetic materials, soda, etc.) consume a lot of water, fuel and energy;
• the presence of a variety of connections with other industries and agriculture;
• relatively low labor intensity, but special requirements for the qualifications of the workforce;
• high capital intensity;
• sophisticated equipment and technologies;
• complex industry structure.

Industry composition

There are different approaches to identifying chemical industries

As part of the chemical industry, there are:

1. mining and chemical industry (extraction of raw materials - apatites and phosphorites, sodium chloride and potassium salts, sulfur and other mining chemical raw materials);
2. the main producing inorganic compounds(acids, alkalis, soda, mineral fertilizers, etc.);
3. chemistry of organic synthesis, including the production of polymeric materials (synthetic rubber, synthetic resins and plastics, chemical fibers) and their processing (production of tires, plastic products, etc.);
4. microbiological industry.

There is another approach that distinguishes semi-product industries in the chemical industry (obtaining salts, acids, alkalis, etc.), basic industries (obtaining polymers, mineral fertilizers, etc.), processing industries (paint and varnish, formaceft, rubber technical, etc.) ).
The greatest development in the chemical industry has received the production of polymers, the raw materials for which are semi-finished petrochemicals. Polymers are the most important structural material for industry and construction.

The location of the chemical industry is determined by a combination of many factors.

For the mining and chemical industry, as for any extractive industry, main factor accommodation - natural resource.

High-tech chemical industries (production of varnishes, dyes, reagents, pharmaceuticals, photo- and pesticides, high-quality polymeric materials, special-purpose chemicals for electronics, etc.) make high demands on the level of training of the workforce, the development of R&D, the production of special equipment ( devices, apparatus, machines).

In addition, many enterprises of basic chemistry and chemistry of organic synthesis are focused on the provision of water resources and electricity.

For enterprises producing finished goods important factor is consumer.

General placement trends

Strengthening the science intensity of the chemical industry as a whole, and especially its individual industries, predetermined the priority of the development of the industry in highly developed countries. Many traditional branches of the chemical industry - mining chemistry, inorganic chemistry (including the production of fertilizers), the production of some simple organic products (including plastics and chemical fibers) have been rapidly developing in recent years in developing countries.

Industrialized countries are increasingly specialized in the production of the latest high-tech types of chemical products.

There are four main regions in the global chemical industry:

1. Foreign Europe, primarily Germany, France, providing 23-24% of world production and export of chemical products. The most "chemicalized" country in this region is Germany. After the Second World War, the petrochemical industry came to the fore in this region, mainly focused on imported raw materials. This led to the shift of the chemical industry to ports (Rotterdam, Marseille, etc.), as well as to the routes of large oil and gas pipelines from Russia (this mainly concerns the countries of Eastern Europe).
2. North America. Particularly distinguished here are the world's largest producer and exporter of chemical products (about 20% of world chemical products and 15% of its world exports).
3. East and Southeast Asia. Here, Japan (15% of world production and export of chemical products), China, and Korea stand out.
4. CIS, where it is allocated (3-4% of world chemical products).

In addition, a very large region specializing in the production of chemical products (mainly semi-products of organic synthesis and fertilizers) has developed in the Persian Gulf. The raw materials for production here are huge resources of associated (oil production) gas. The oil-producing countries of the region, Iran, and others, provide 5-7% of the world's chemical products, which are almost entirely export-oriented.

Outside these regions, the chemical industry is developed in, and other countries.
Placement of chemical industries.

Among the industries, the leading place is occupied by the polymer materials industry, based on oil and gas or petrochemical raw materials. For a long period of time, the raw material base of the polymer materials industry was almost everywhere coal-chemical and plant raw materials. The change in the nature of the raw material base significantly influenced the geography of industry - the importance of coal regions decreased, the role of oil and gas production regions and coastal regions increased.

Currently, the most powerful organic synthesis industry is in economically developed countries with large reserves of oil and gas (USA, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Russia, etc.), or occupying a favorable position for the supply of these types of chemical raw materials (Japan, Italy, France, Germany , Belgium, etc.).

All of the above-mentioned countries occupy leading positions in the world production of synthetic resins and plastics and other types of synthetic products. Of the polymer industries, only man-made fibers are showing a shift towards developing countries. In this type of production, along with the traditional leaders - the United States, Germany, etc., China, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan, and India have also been among the largest manufacturers in recent years.

Unlike the polymer materials industry, the mining and basic chemistry industries are widely represented not only in economically developed countries, but also in developing countries.

The leading producers of mineral fertilizers are China, USA, Canada, India, Russia, Germany, Belarus, France,. At the same time, for the extraction and processing of phosphorites, along with the USA, there are (,), Asia (, Israel), the CIS (Russia, Kazakhstan), Christmas Islands, etc. The overwhelming part of the world production and processing of potash salts is carried out by the USA, Canada, Germany, France, Russia, Belarus.

The main raw material for the production of nitrogen fertilizers is. Therefore, among the most important producers and exporters of nitrogen fertilizers are, first of all, countries rich in natural gas (USA, Canada, the Netherlands, Russia, the countries of the Persian Gulf). Large quantities of nitrogen fertilizers are also produced by France, Germany, Ukraine, China, India, whose nitrogen fertilizer industry is closely related to the ferrous metallurgy of these countries.

Sulfur-producing countries - USA, Canada, Mexico, Germany, France, Poland. Ukraine, Russia, Japan, etc. Largest manufacturers sulfuric acid are the USA, China, Japan and Russia (they account for more than half of world production).

Geography of selected branches of the chemical industry

Sulfuric acid production	Production of mineral fertilizers	Plastics industry	Production of chemical fibers	Production of synthetic rubber
	USA	China	USA	China	USA
	China	USA	Japan	USA	Japan
	Russia	Canada	FRG	Taiwan	France
	Japan	India	France	R. Korea	FRG
	Ukraine	Russia	Taiwan	India	Great Britain
	France		Netherlands
	Brazil	Indonesia	Russia		Canada