Biggest CapEx Basic Materials Stocks
Top basic materials companies ranked by capital expenditures, latest annual filings.
What Capital Expenditures Mean for Basic Materials Companies
Capital expenditures in basic materials fund mines, smelters, refineries, chemical plants, and paper mills, all assets that take years to build and decades to operate. Project development timelines of five years or longer mean that capex decisions made at one point in the cycle determine production capacity well into the next, with permitting delays and cost overruns frequently pushing projects materially off their original budgets and timelines.
Why Capital Expenditures Matter Less Than They Seem
Capex that extends low-cost reserves or builds tier-one processing capacity can produce returns for generations. Still, the sector has repeatedly seen industry-wide buildouts peak together, creating oversupply and collapsing margins for years after commissioning. Aggregated industry capex often predicts weak forward returns because individual producer decisions, each defensible in isolation, combine into a collective overinvestment that the market then has to absorb.
What to Read Alongside
Pair capex with Free Cash Flow for cash after sustaining capital, Net Income for the profit the asset base produces, and Long-term Debt because large projects are often partly debt-financed.
| # | Symbol | Company | Sector | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BHP | BHP Group Limited | Basic Materials | $9.40B | $218.80B |
| 2 | APD | Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. | Basic Materials | $7.02B | $62.23B |
| 3 | LIN | Linde plc | Basic Materials | $5.26B | $210.90B |
| 4 | FCX | Freeport-McMoRan Inc. | Basic Materials | $4.49B | $102.73B |
| 5 | NUE | Nucor Corporation | Basic Materials | $3.42B | $54.99B |
| 6 | NEM | Newmont Corporation | Basic Materials | $3.04B | $129.66B |
| 7 | CRH | CRH plc | Basic Materials | $2.71B | $57.97B |
| 8 | TX | Ternium S.A. | Basic Materials | $2.66B | $11.16B |
| 9 | DOW | Dow Inc. | Basic Materials | $2.48B | $20.42B |
| 10 | NTR | Nutrien Ltd. | Basic Materials | $1.88B | $35.57B |
| 11 | LYB | LyondellBasell Industries N.V. | Basic Materials | $1.88B | $19.46B |
| 12 | GFI | Gold Fields Limited | Basic Materials | $1.40B | $37.41B |
| 13 | MOS | The Mosaic Company | Basic Materials | $1.36B | $7.65B |
| 14 | SCCO | Southern Copper Corporation | Basic Materials | $1.33B | $167.23B |
| 15 | KGC | Kinross Gold Corporation | Basic Materials | $1.19B | $32.97B |
| 16 | ECL | Ecolab Inc. | Basic Materials | $1.05B | $75.68B |
| 17 | WLK | Westlake Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.99B | $8.66B |
| 18 | CF | CF Industries Holdings, Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.95B | $18.66B |
| 19 | STLD | Steel Dynamics, Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.95B | $32.96B |
| 20 | CX | CEMEX, S.A.B. de C.V. | Basic Materials | $0.95B | $14.46B |
| 21 | SQM | Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A. | Basic Materials | $0.88B | $19.86B |
| 22 | EGO | Eldorado Gold Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.87B | $11.05B |
| 23 | MLM | Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.81B | $35.49B |
| 24 | SHW | The Sherwin-Williams Company | Basic Materials | $0.80B | $78.00B |
| 25 | AMRZ | Amrize Ltd | Basic Materials | $0.79B | $21.11B |
| 26 | PPG | PPG Industries, Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.78B | $23.33B |
| 27 | LAC | Lithium Americas Corp. | Basic Materials | $0.77B | $1.07B |
| 28 | EQX | Equinox Gold Corp. | Basic Materials | $0.69B | $14.20B |
| 29 | VMC | Vulcan Materials Company | Basic Materials | $0.68B | $31.90B |
| 30 | AA | Alcoa Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.62B | $12.40B |
| 31 | IFF | International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.59B | $21.33B |
| 32 | CTVA | Corteva, Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.59B | $53.73B |
| 33 | ALB | Albemarle Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.59B | $13.33B |
| 34 | CLF | Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.56B | $6.89B |
| 35 | EMN | Eastman Chemical Company | Basic Materials | $0.55B | $7.44B |
| 36 | AGI | Alamos Gold Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.51B | $14.74B |
| 37 | BVN | Compañía de Minas Buenaventura S.A.A. | Basic Materials | $0.47B | $8.72B |
| 38 | HBM | Hudbay Minerals Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.47B | $11.84B |
| 39 | EXP | Eagle Materials Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.42B | $5.50B |
| 40 | WFG | West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. | Basic Materials | $0.41B | $5.65B |
| 41 | AAUC | Allied Gold Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.41B | $3.12B |
| 42 | JHX | James Hardie Industries plc | Basic Materials | $0.38B | $15.47B |
| 43 | NEXA | Nexa Resources S.A. | Basic Materials | $0.35B | $1.70B |
| 44 | KNF | Knife River Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.35B | $3.15B |
| 45 | CE | Celanese Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.34B | $4.87B |
| 46 | TROX | Tronox Holdings plc | Basic Materials | $0.34B | $0.69B |
| 47 | SOLS | Solstice Advanced Materials, Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.34B | $9.16B |
| 48 | DD | DuPont de Nemours, Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.33B | $17.35B |
| 49 | CSTM | Constellium SE | Basic Materials | $0.33B | $3.46B |
| 50 | RS | Reliance, Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.33B | $19.64B |
| 51 | PAAS | Pan American Silver Corp. | Basic Materials | $0.31B | $20.21B |
| 52 | IAG | IAMGOLD Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.29B | $11.49B |
| 53 | CBT | Cabot Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.27B | $3.95B |
| 54 | UFPI | UFP Industries, Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.27B | $4.43B |
| 55 | ERO | Ero Copper Corp. | Basic Materials | $0.26B | $3.62B |
| 56 | HL | Hecla Mining Company | Basic Materials | $0.25B | $12.33B |
| 57 | ARIS | Aris Mining Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.24B | $3.93B |
| 58 | BCC | Boise Cascade Company | Basic Materials | $0.24B | $2.64B |
| 59 | SSRM | SSR Mining Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.23B | $7.47B |
| 60 | OLN | Olin Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.23B | $1.89B |
| 61 | SLVM | Sylvamo Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.22B | $1.44B |
| 62 | RPM | RPM International Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.22B | $12.64B |
| 63 | CDE | Coeur Mining, Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.22B | $20.07B |
| 64 | CC | The Chemours Company | Basic Materials | $0.21B | $2.19B |
| 65 | AXTA | Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. | Basic Materials | $0.20B | $6.82B |
| 66 | AUGO | Aura Minerals Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.18B | $7.47B |
| 67 | HUN | Huntsman Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.17B | $1.55B |
| 68 | MP | MP Materials Corp. | Basic Materials | $0.17B | $8.91B |
| 69 | EXK | Endeavour Silver Corp. | Basic Materials | $0.17B | $3.00B |
| 70 | SSD | Simpson Manufacturing Co., Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.16B | $7.12B |
| 71 | TTAM | Titan America SA | Basic Materials | $0.16B | $2.55B |
| 72 | FUL | H.B. Fuller Company | Basic Materials | $0.14B | $2.67B |
| 73 | KALU | Kaiser Aluminum Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.14B | $2.47B |
| 74 | AMR | Alpha Metallurgical Resources, Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.13B | $2.23B |
| 75 | SCL | Stepan Company | Basic Materials | $0.12B | $1.41B |
| 76 | WS | Worthington Steel, Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.12B | $1.70B |
| 77 | GAU | Galiano Gold Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.11B | $0.55B |
| 78 | MTX | Minerals Technologies Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.11B | $2.08B |
| 79 | AVNT | Avient Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.11B | $3.71B |
| 80 | TGLS | Tecnoglass Holdings Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.10B | $1.62B |
| 81 | CENX | Century Aluminum Company | Basic Materials | $0.10B | $3.87B |
| 82 | MEOH | Methanex Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.10B | $4.54B |
| 83 | ASH | Ashland Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.10B | $3.16B |
| 84 | SMG | The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company | Basic Materials | $0.10B | $2.99B |
| 85 | FMC | FMC Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.10B | $1.29B |
| 86 | SXT | Sensient Technologies Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.09B | $5.52B |
| 87 | WLKP | Westlake Chemical Partners LP | Basic Materials | $0.08B | $0.75B |
| 88 | NEU | NewMarket Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.08B | $8.14B |
| 89 | LXU | LSB Industries, Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.08B | $0.75B |
| 90 | ECVT | Ecovyst Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.07B | $1.14B |
| 91 | CMP | Compass Minerals International, Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.07B | $0.99B |
| 92 | REX | REX American Resources Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.07B | $1.43B |
| 93 | SXC | SunCoke Energy, Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.07B | $0.81B |
| 94 | USLM | United States Lime & Minerals, Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.06B | $3.29B |
| 95 | ESI | Element Solutions Inc | Basic Materials | $0.06B | $8.14B |
| 96 | AG | First Majestic Silver Corp. | Basic Materials | $0.06B | $9.52B |
| 97 | GSM | Ferroglobe PLC | Basic Materials | $0.06B | $0.78B |
| 98 | HWKN | Hawkins, Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.06B | $2.62B |
| 99 | NGVT | Ingevity Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.06B | $2.37B |
| 100 | KWR | Quaker Chemical Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.06B | $2.67B |
No companies match this search.
How this ranking is built
Companies are ranked by capital expenditures as reported in their most recent annual filing with the SEC. Figures shown are in US dollars (or percent, as noted), rounded to two decimals.
- Source: annual 10-K / 20-F filings from companies trading on US exchanges (NYSE, Nasdaq, AMEX).
- Fiscal year: whichever annual period the company has most recently filed. Fiscal years don't always align with the calendar year, so the "as of FY" stamp above reflects the most common year across the table.
- Filtered out: warrants, preferred shares, and duplicate listings that share a parent company's financials.
- Size floor: A company qualifies at $500 million in market cap or above. Below that, one mis-stated figure outranks the companies the list is about.
- Currency check: A company whose annual revenue runs above 15 times its market cap is left out, because at that gap the two figures are not in the same currency.
- Currency check: A company whose balance sheet runs above 150 times its market cap is left out for the same reason.
- Update cadence: refreshed as companies file new annual reports (typically within 60–90 days of fiscal year end).
Not financial advice. This is a research tool, not a recommendation.