Both petrochemical and daily chemical products units are continuous processing plants for the entire single product. Not all petrochemical or commercial chemical materials are produced in one place, but groups of related materials tend to cause industrial symbiosis as well as materials, energy and utility efficiency and other economies of scale.

The largest chemicals are produced in several production locations in the world, such as Texas and Louisiana on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Teesside in the United Kingdom, and Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Large manufacturing bases usually have clusters of manufacturing units that share utilities and large-scale infrastructure such as power stations, port facilities, roads and railway terminals. To demonstrate the above clustering and integration, approximately 50% of the petrochemical and commercial chemicals in the UK are produced by the process industry cluster in Northeast England in Teesside.

The manufacturing of specialty chemicals and fine chemicals is mostly carried out in discrete batch processes. These manufacturers are usually in similar locations, but in many cases they are in business parks with multiple departments.
There are 170 major chemical companies in the United States that operate internationally, more than 2,800 factories outside the United States, and 1,700 overseas subsidiaries or affiliates operating. The annual chemical production in the United States is 750 billion U.S. dollars. U.S. industry has recorded a huge trade surplus, employing more than 1 million people in the United States alone. The chemical industry is also the second largest energy-consuming industry in the manufacturing industry, and the annual cost of reducing pollution exceeds US$5 billion.

In Europe, the chemical, plastics and rubber sectors are the largest industrial sectors. In total, they have created approximately 3.2 million jobs for more than 60,000 companies. Since 2000, the chemical industry alone has accounted for 2/3 of the EU's overall manufacturing trade surplus.

In 2012, the chemical industry accounted for 12% of the EU's manufacturing value added. Europe is still the world’s largest chemical trading area, accounting for 43% of global exports and 37% of imports, but the latest data shows that Asia is catching up, accounting for 34% of global exports and 37% of imports. All regions of Shanghai still have trade surpluses, except that in 2011, the chemical trade between Japan and China was balanced. Today, Europe’s trade surplus with the rest of the world reaches 41.7 billion euros

In the 20 years from 1991 to 2011, the sales of the European chemical industry increased by 295 billion euros to 559 billion euros, showing a trend of continuous growth. Nevertheless, the share of European industry in the world chemical market has fallen from 36% to 20%. This is due to the huge growth in production and sales in emerging markets such as India and China. Data shows that 95% of the impact comes from China. In 2012, data from the European Chemical Industry Council showed that five European countries accounted for 71% of EU chemical sales. They are Germany, France, Britain, Italy and the Netherlands

The chemical industry has grown in China, India, South Korea, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Nigeria and Brazil. This growth is driven by changes in raw material supply and prices, labor and energy costs, differences in economic growth rates, and environmental pressures.

When a company becomes a major producer in the chemical industry, we can also look at the ranking of industrialized countries from a global perspective, considering that a country or region can export products worth billions of dollars. Although the chemical business is global, only a few industrialized countries account for the majority of the global chemical product output of 3.7 trillion US dollars. In 2008, the United States alone produced $689 billion in chemicals, accounting for 18.6% of the world's total production.

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