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Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products

NACE 20411 · division 20 Chemicals
Current registrations 154division 20: 1,262
Starters, 12 months 85.2 per 100 · Belgium 8.9
Bankruptcies, 12 months 213.0 per 1,000 registrations · Belgium 6.2
Employment (FTE) 1,91022 employers · latest accounts
Median age 7.0 yearsBelgium 8.1 years
E-invoicing via Peppol 80.5%124 of 154 companies in the Peppol Directory · Belgium 85.0%

Filed accounts

NACE 20411 · financial year 2025 · 44 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
45.4%
division 47.3% · Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€7,004
division €51,480 · Belgium €16,492
Median equity
€585,630
division €1.1m · Belgium €98,323
Loss-making
36.4%
division 29.6% · Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
6.8%
division 13.5% · Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
4.6%
division 8.0% · Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
2.05
division 1.64 · Belgium 1.66
Filed late
36.4%
financial year 2024, 44 filings · division 26.5% · Belgium 38.4%
Missing or 90 days late
4.0%
of 50 companies with annual accounts · division 4.8% · Belgium 5.4%
Per financial year202020212022202320242025
Median solvency 46.4%43.8%39.3%44.2%41.7%45.4%
Median net result €213,482€14,867€9,758€32,085€25,264€7,004

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

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies, 5 years, still registered
6
3.90% of the registrations · Belgium 1.68%
Running bankruptcies
6
39.0 per 1,000 registrations

Recent bankruptcies

Date Company
14-10-2026 CHEMBO BEVIL SA
BE 0465.994.433
02-10-2026 Darar Ali, Samar
BE 0804.272.332 · sole trader · Brussels
20-08-2025 Clouds of happiness
BE 0790.794.082
25-09-2024 Lesuisse, Jean-Michel
BE 0880.513.540 · sole trader · Orp-Jauche
26-07-2024 LA RESSOURCE
BE 0747.863.466
24-08-2022 PETITE SORCIERE
BE 0695.738.240

Every bankruptcy in division 20, last 90 days

Spread across the country

by region and province · 64 of 154 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 27 · 42.2%
  • Wallonia 25 · 39.1%
  • Brussels 9 · 14.1%
  • Abroad 3 · 4.7%
fewer moremax 12

Largest employers

NACE 20411 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 McBrideEstaimpuis 789 FTEfinancial year 2025
  2. 2 Procter en Gamble Manufacturing BelgiumGrimbergen 303 FTEfinancial year 2020
  3. 3 CID LINESYpres 162 FTEfinancial year 2025
  4. 4 ECOLAB PRODUCTION BELGIUMTessenderlo-Ham 157 FTEfinancial year 2025
  5. 5 CHRISTEYNSGhent 127 FTEfinancial year 2025

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 25 companies
  • 207 White-collar workers in the chemical industry 24
  • 116 Chemical industry 22
  • 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

2 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 products20412 90 6 2 496

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. Return on equity of 4.6% is below Belgium's 15.9%. The median net result of €7,004 is below Belgium's €16,492. 6.8% of the annual accounts show negative equity, against 12.4% in Belgium.

Bankruptcies. The median bankruptcy probability of 0.4% is above Belgium's 0.2%.

Inflow and structure. Wallonia holds 41.0% of the seats, against 22.7% in Belgium. In 12 months, 5.2 of 100 companies started, against 8.9 in Belgium. That is fewer than in 67% of the 87 NACE divisions. 58.4% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium.

Staff and filing. The 5 largest employers hold 1,537 of the 1,910 FTE: 80.5%.

Direction. The median net result fell from €213,482 in financial year 2020 to €7,004 in financial year 2025.

The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other divisions is as of 10-11-2026 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 20411 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 1,276,421 companies with a main activity, because only those belong to a division. The other 699,557 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.