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Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products

NACE 20200 · division 20 Chemicals
Current registrations 32division 20: 1,262
Employment (FTE) 1,69012 employers · latest accounts
Median age 24.6 yearsBelgium 8.1 years
E-invoicing via Peppol 96.9%31 of 32 companies in the Peppol Directory · Belgium 85.0%

No starter in the past twelve months. No bankruptcy in the past five years.

Spread across the country

by region and province · 28 of 32 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Wallonia 14 · 50.0%
  • Flanders 10 · 35.7%
  • Brussels 3 · 10.7%
  • Abroad 1 · 3.6%
fewer moremax 5

The balance sheets of division 20 on the map, by municipality and down to the address

Largest employers

NACE 20200 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 Evonik AntwerpenAntwerp 905 FTEfinancial year 2025
  2. 2 Bayer AgricultureAntwerp 642 FTEfinancial year 2025
  3. 3 ARYSTA LIFESCIENCE BENELUXSeraing 32.9 FTEfinancial year 2026
  4. 4 ISK BIOSCIENCES EUROPEMachelen (Brab.) 26.7 FTEfinancial year 2022
  5. 5 ARMOSAEngis 25.3 FTEfinancial year 2025

Companies

32 with this main activity

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 18 companies
  • 207 White-collar workers in the chemical industry 14
  • 116 Chemical industry 8
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 4
  • 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 2
  • 322 Temporary agency work and approved local services 1

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

Division 20: Chemicals

Related activities

13 other activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products20420 244 36 3 2,329
Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products20590 230 8 0 7,611
Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products20411 154 8 2 1,910
Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products20160 138 6 0 4,644
Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products20300 118 2 1 1,957
Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products20140 106 0 0 13,045
Show all 13 activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products20412 90 6 2 496
Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products20150 73 1 1 1,752
Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products20130 62 1 0 3,950
Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products20110 42 1 0 3,272
Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products20600 33 0 0 668
Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products20120 13 1 0 594
Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products20170 11 0 0 69

Filed accounts of the division

NACE division 20 · financial year 2025 · 761 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
47.3%
Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€52,322
Belgium €16,516
Median equity
€1.1m
Belgium €98,395
Loss-making
29.5%
Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
13.4%
Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
8.0%
Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
1.64
Belgium 1.66
Filed late
26.5%
financial year 2024, 642 filings · Belgium 38.4%
Missing or 90 days late
4.8%
of 839 companies with annual accounts · Belgium 5.4%
Per financial year20182019202020212022202320242025
Median solvency --41.9%42.9%43.0%42.8%44.4%46.0%
Median net result --€69,453€85,659€65,497€43,848€47,243€38,704
Filed late 28.4%36.2%28.9%32.9%29.9%27.7%26.5%-

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

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

Employers with the highest staff cost per FTE in this division All sectors by staff cost In the Analysis workbench

Foreign control in NACE division 20

848 registered companies
Companies with a foreign parent
11%
94 of 848; Belgium 0.3%
Staff at those companies
50%
21,971 of 43,988 FTE; Belgium 14%

Main parent countries: Netherlands (18), United States (15) and France (14).Show on the map by municipality

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

Inflow and structure. Half of the companies are younger than 24.6 years, against 8.1 years in Belgium. 12.5% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium. This activity holds 2.5% of the registrations of Chemicals.

Staff and filing. The 5 largest employers hold 1,631 of the 1,690 FTE: 96.5%.

The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other divisions is as of 07-11-2026 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 20200 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 1,276,547 companies with a main activity, because only those belong to a division. The other 699,272 registrations publish no activity.

For NACE 20200, 22 annual accounts of financial year 2025 were filed. That is too few for a median, which needs at least 30.

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