Skip to content

Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products

NACE 20150 · division 20 Chemicals
Current registrations 73division 20: 1,262
Starters, 12 months 11.4 per 100 · Belgium 8.9
Bankruptcies, 12 months 113.7 per 1,000 registrations · Belgium 6.2
Employment (FTE) 1,75223 employers · latest accounts
Median age 22.2 yearsBelgium 8.1 years
E-invoicing via Peppol 86.3%63 of 73 companies in the Peppol Directory · Belgium 85.0%
Your choice Modave 20150 · Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products All of Belgium, every sector

This view shows Belgium · 20150 · Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products. Sector figures are national, so the place does not apply here.

Filed accounts

NACE 20150 · financial year 2025 · 57 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
44.1%
division 47.3% · Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€152,428
division €51,480 · Belgium €16,500
Median equity
€2.8m
division €1.1m · Belgium €98,350
Loss-making
22.8%
division 29.6% · Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
7.0%
division 13.5% · Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
11.9%
division 8.0% · Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
1.41
division 1.64 · Belgium 1.66
Filed late
19.3%
financial year 2024, 57 filings · division 26.5% · Belgium 38.4%
Missing or 90 days late
0.0%
of 60 companies with annual accounts · division 4.8% · Belgium 5.4%
Per financial year202020212022202320242025
Median solvency 33.5%35.9%35.9%45.5%49.5%44.1%
Median net result €154,229€120,536€84,722€85,571€54,644€152,428

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

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies, 5 years, still registered
2
2.74% of the registrations · Belgium 1.68%
Running bankruptcies
2
27.4 per 1,000 registrations

Recent bankruptcies

Date Company
09-03-2026 RECUPROCES INVESTMENT
BE 0825.429.616
20-10-2025 COMEVAR
BE 0822.662.839

Every bankruptcy in division 20, last 90 days

Spread across the country

by region and province · 71 of 73 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 51 · 71.8%
  • Wallonia 14 · 19.7%
  • Brussels 1 · 1.4%
  • Abroad 5 · 7.0%
fewer moremax 16

Largest employers

NACE 20150 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 EuroChem AntwerpenAntwerp 406 FTEfinancial year 2025
  2. 2 yara tertre sa/nvSaint-Ghislain 289 FTEfinancial year 2025
  3. 3 Arvesta BelgiumLeuven 151 FTEfinancial year 2025
  4. 4 WALAGRISombreffe 145 FTEfinancial year 2025
  5. 5 ROSIERFrasnes-lez-Anvaing 119 FTEfinancial year 2025

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 35 companies
  • 145 Horticulture 13
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 13
  • 207 White-collar workers in the chemical industry 11
  • 116 Chemical industry 10
  • 119 Food trade 4
  • 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 3
  • 118 Food industry 1
  • 132 Technical farming and horticulture work 1
Show the 4 others
  • 140.03 Road transport and logistics for third parties 1
  • 144 Agriculture 1
  • 220 White-collar workers in the food industry 1
  • 311 Large retail businesses 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 €152,428 is above Belgium's €16,500. 7.0% of the annual accounts show negative equity, against 12.4% in Belgium. Return on equity of 11.9% is below Belgium's 15.9%.

Inflow and structure. Half of the companies are younger than 22.2 years, against 8.1 years in Belgium. 2.7% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium. Flanders holds 77.3% of the seats, against 64.7% in Belgium.

Staff and filing. 19.3% of the financial year 2024 accounts were filed late, against 38.4% in Belgium. The 5 largest employers hold 1,109 of the 1,752 FTE: 63.3%.

Direction. Median solvency rose from 33.5% in financial year 2020 to 44.1% 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 20150 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.