The chemical industry is aa complex branch that determines the level of scientific and technological progress along with engineering, and also supplies materials and technologies for all branches of the national economy.

The chemical industry of the world is one of thethe main branches of heavy industry, and represents a material and scientific and technical base for the chemicalization of all branches of the national economy. This branch of the economy plays a key role in strengthening the defense capacity, building up productive forces, in maintaining the vital needs of any society. The chemical industry of the world is a complex of industries, the basic technologies in which are chemical methods of processing materials or raw materials. Thanks to the development of the chemical industry, complex production of valuable industrial products appears and develops; replacement of expensive raw materials is made cheaper and more affordable; production waste is recycled; there is a complex use of raw materials. The chemical industry of the world forms a complex and multifunctional system of connections with other branches of the national economy, for example, with the gas and oil refining industry, with coal mining, with the metallurgical industry, and also with forestry and light industry. Combinations of various industries with chemical enable the creation of entire industrial complexes.

Statistics show that the chemicalthe world's industry had the highest rates of development until the mid-1970s. The energy crisis of this period somewhat reduced the pace of development of this industry, since it took a certain amount of time to restore the structural and technological reorganization in the chemical industry. The further development of the chemical industry has shown stable results, and at present this industry is ahead of electronics only by the cost of manufactured products. In the share of industrial production in developed countries, the chemical industry is second only to machine building.

Petrochemical industry in Russiarepresents a single complex of the national economy engaged in the extraction and processing of oil and its derivatives. According to statistics in the last decade of the 20th century, petrochemical products accounted for more than a third of all chemical products, and more than half of the world organic production of organic components. The same proportions persisted in the petrochemical industry in Russia.

Chemical industry in its structureis more complex and includes more than 200 sub-sectors, while the range of products produced by the chemical industry reaches 1 million. The chemical industry in Germany, like the world chemical industry, groups the sub-sectors in the mining and chemical industry, the basic chemical industry and the polymer industry.

The mining and chemical industry is associated withextraction, processing and enrichment of phosphorites, potassium salts, sulfur. The main chemical industry is represented by the production of mineral fertilizers, salts, alkalis, acids. And the polymer industry is based on organic synthesis and includes the production of synthetic plastics and resins, chemical fibers and rubber, dyes, etc. This same branch of the petrochemical industry provides the consumer needs of society and serves for the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, photochemistry, detergents, cosmetics and perfumes.