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The chemical, petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries play a major role in the U.S. economy by providing a wide range of products. The chemical industry includes those manufacturing facilities that produce bulk or specialty compounds by chemical reactions between organic and/or inorganic materials. Petrochemical industry includes those manufacturing facilities that create substances from raw hydrocarbon materials such as crude oil and natural gas. The pharmaceutical industry formulates, fabricates and processes medicinal products from raw materials. The total annual direct cost of corrosion for this industry sector is estimated at $1.7 billion per year (8 percent of total capital expenditures).
No calculation was made for the indirect costs of production outages or indirect costs related to catastrophic failures. The costs of operation and maintenance related to corrosion were not readily available; estimating these costs would require detailed study of data records of individual companies.
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