The chemical factories comprises the companies and other organizations that develop and produce industrial, specialty and other chemicals. Central to the modern world economy, it converts raw materials (oil, natural gas, air, water, metals, and minerals) into commodity chemicals for industrial and consumer products. It includes industries for petrochemicals such as polymers for plastics and synthetic fibers; inorganic chemicals such as acids and alkalis; agricultural chemicals such as fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides; and other categories such as industrial gases, speciality chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

Various professionals are involved in the chemical factories including chemical engineers, chemists and lab technicians.
Polymers and plastics such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene terephthalate, polystyrene and polycarbonate comprise about 80% of the industry's output worldwide.[11] Chemical factories are used in many different consumer goods, and are also used in many different sectors. This includes agriculture manufacturing, construction, and service industries.[11] Major industrial customers include rubber and plastic products, textiles, apparel, petroleum refining, pulp and paper, and primary metals. Chemicals are nearly a $5 trillion global enterprise, and the EU and U.S. chemical companies are the world's largest producers.[12]

Sales of the chemical factories business can be divided into a few broad categories, including basic chemicals (about 35% - 37% of dollar output), life sciences (30%), specialty chemicals (20% - 25%) and consumer products (about 10%).[13]
Chemical industry, complex of processes, operations, and organizations engaged in the manufacture of chemicals and their derivatives.

Although the chemical factories may be described simply as the industry that uses chemistry and manufactures chemicals, this definition is not altogether satisfactory because it leaves open the question of what is a chemical. Definitions adopted for statistical economic purposes vary from country to country. Also the Standard International Trade Classification, published by the United Nations, includes explosives and pyrotechnic products as part of its chemicals section. But the classification does not include the man-made fibres, although the preparation of the raw materials for such fibres is as chemical as any branch of manufacture could be.
The complicated characteristics of the chemical factories
The scope of the chemical factories is in part shaped by custom rather than by logic. The petroleum industry is usually thought of as separate from the chemical industry, for in the early days of the petroleum industry in the 19th century crude oil was merely subjected to a simple distillation treatment. Modern petroleum industrial processes, however, bring about chemical changes, and some of the products of a modern refinery complex are chemicals by any definition. The term petrochemical is used to describe these chemical operations, but, because they are often carried out at the same plant as the primary distillation, the distinction between petroleum industry and chemical factories is difficult to maintain.