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Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products

NACE 20130 · division 20 Chemicals
Current registrations 62division 20: 1,262
Starters, 12 months 11.6 per 100 · Belgium 8.9
Employment (FTE) 3,95026 employers · latest accounts
Median age 24.0 yearsBelgium 8.1 years
E-invoicing via Peppol 82.3%51 of 62 companies in the Peppol Directory · Belgium 85.0%

No bankruptcy in the past twelve months.

Filed accounts

NACE 20130 · financial year 2025 · 43 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
33.9%
division 47.3% · Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€58,955
division €51,480 · Belgium €16,500
Median equity
€2.6m
division €1.1m · Belgium €98,350
Loss-making
27.9%
division 29.6% · Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
16.3%
division 13.5% · Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
12.1%
division 8.0% · Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
1.38
division 1.64 · Belgium 1.66
Filed late
29.2%
financial year 2024, 48 filings · division 26.5% · Belgium 38.4%
Missing or 90 days late
7.8%
of 51 companies with annual accounts · division 4.8% · Belgium 5.4%
Per financial year202020212022202320242025
Median solvency 35.1%38.3%40.1%39.9%37.7%33.9%
Median net result €77,843€180,746€195,416€66,177€214,228€58,955

Hold your customer's or competitor's figures against them in the Sector benchmark

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies, 5 years, still registered
2
3.23% of the registrations · Belgium 1.68%
Running bankruptcies
2
32.3 per 1,000 registrations

Recent bankruptcies

Date Company
03-04-2025 Bioquest Alliance
BE 0734.840.227
21-03-2025 EGEIRO PHARMA
BE 0684.906.013

Every bankruptcy in division 20, last 90 days

Spread across the country

by region and province · 61 of 62 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 31 · 50.8%
  • Wallonia 17 · 27.9%
  • Brussels 6 · 9.8%
  • Abroad 7 · 11.5%
fewer moremax 11

Largest employers

NACE 20130 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 PRAYONEngis 1,083 FTEfinancial year 2025
  2. 2 CovestroAntwerp 950 FTEfinancial year 2025
  3. 3 Tessenderlo GroupIxelles 708 FTEfinancial year 2025
  4. 4 SOLVAYBrussels 317 FTEfinancial year 2025
  5. 5 Molymet BelgiumGhent 158 FTEfinancial year 2021

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 37 companies
  • 207 White-collar workers in the chemical industry 33
  • 116 Chemical industry 24
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 3
  • 106 Cement industry 1
  • 106.02 Concrete industry 1
  • 111 Metal, mechanical and electrical engineering 1
  • 119 Food trade 1
  • 209 White-collar workers in metal manufacturing 1

Source: the annual accounts at the National Bank. One filing can name more than one committee.

Division 20: Chemicals

Related activities

6 other activities

Bankruptcies per year in division 20

Per year201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026
Bankruptcies56975536311106
Jobs lost17772336861913841481254

2026 through June. Every bankruptcy, also of companies that have since left the register. Source: Statbel (Directorate-General Statistics), NACE classification of 2008.

Staff cost per FTE in NACE division 20

381 employers
Median
€84,700
Belgium €61,400
Middle half
€66,300 to €116,800
half of the employers lie between
Place among sectors
8 of 78
sectors with a median staff cost per FTE, highest first
By size class
SizeMedianMiddle halfEmployers
fewer than 10 FTE €66,700 €53,100 to €85,300 120
10 to 49 FTE €82,500 €65,300 to €102,400 125
50 to 249 FTE €98,400 €79,700 to €127,200 98
250 FTE or more €143,800 €120,400 to €155,000 38

Foreign control in NACE division 20

848 registered companies

Subsidies in this sector

per register · legal entities with an enterprise number
  • Flemish subsidies €350.1m awarded 268 recipients · 2022 to 2025 · largest: Subsidie voor bedrijven ter compensatie van indirecte emissiekosten
  • Federal transfers 2.6m amount as published 4 recipients · 2023 to 2025 · largest: Subsidies voor de verbetering van telecommunicatieconnectiviteit
  • EU budget €607.9m attributed share 19 recipients · 2021 to 2025 · largest: Innovation Fund
  • EU research €64.4m EU contribution 43 recipients · 2008 to 2027 · largest: Horizon 2020

Explore every recipient in this sector

Insights on Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products

Balance sheet and result. The median net result of €58,955 is above Belgium's €16,500. 16.3% of the annual accounts show negative equity, against 12.4% in Belgium. Solvency of 33.9% is below Belgium's 46.1%.

Bankruptcies. The median bankruptcy probability of 0.3% is above Belgium's 0.2%.

Inflow and structure. Half of the companies are younger than 24.0 years, against 8.1 years in Belgium. 1.6% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium. Wallonia holds 31.5% of the seats, against 22.7% in Belgium.

Staff and filing. 29.2% of the financial year 2024 accounts were filed late, against 38.4% in Belgium. The 5 largest employers hold 3,216 of the 3,950 FTE: 81.4%.

Direction. Median solvency fell from 35.1% in financial year 2020 to 33.9% in financial year 2025. The median net result fell from €77,843 in financial year 2020 to €58,955 in financial year 2025.

The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other divisions is as of 08-11-2026 05:30.

Method and sources

Every company registered today counts under its main activities in the KBO. Establishment units do not count. Staff counts once, under the employer's first main activity, from its latest accounts and only where it fits the staff costs. The count follows the NACE 2025 classification, the version in which code 20130 exists.

The bankruptcies over five years count only companies still registered today, because the activity of a company that left the register is not kept. So they are fewer than the bankruptcies of those years, and the figure is not a probability for the future. Over twelve months the count is nearly complete, because a bankrupt company stays registered while its bankruptcy runs. A company with more than one main activity counts in each of those sectors.

The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other NACE divisions rests on an overview of every division, counted again each night. Each division is counted in the version of the NACE classification in which it exists. A standing such as "more than in 80%" compares with the other divisions that have the figure. A division's bankruptcy probability is the median over its companies with a score. Belgium here counts the 1,276,474 companies with a main activity, because only those belong to a division. The other 699,509 registrations publish no activity.

Each median is the value of the middle company, computed over the annual accounts of financial year 2025, and is shown only from 30 accounts. A share (loss-making, negative equity) counts that year's accounts with that trait. Accounts are late when they are filed after the statutory deadline. The direction per financial year follows the companies still registered today. Missing or 90 days late counts the companies with accounts missing today, or whose latest were filed more than 90 days after the deadline. The dossier follows the same rule.