Plastic pallets for chemical manufacturing, bought by the load
Chemical Manufacturing
- NAICS
- 325
- US jobs, 2025
- 892,426
- Establishments
- 25,801
- Leading state
- Texas, 90,310
- Dock pattern
- drums, bags and fire
Chemical docks load drums, bags and boxes. The 48 x 48 holds four 55-gallon drums without overhang and the 45 x 45 is the CP9 chemical standard. The fire listing matters because insurers ask about it.
The industry employs 892,426 people across 25,801 establishments. Texas leads with 90,310 jobs, followed by California (75,499), Ohio (49,328), Illinois (48,745) and New Jersey (47,966).
What the receiving dock sees: stacks in the dock door and a counterbalance lift truck carrying a stack on its forks. Schematic, not to scale.
What a chemical manufacturing dock checks first
- Footprint: 45 x 45 for CP9, 48 x 48 for drums.
- Static load, for stacked drums and bags.
- Fire listing, because plastic can raise the commodity class when unlisted.
- Chemical resistance of the resin, from the maker.
- Containment features if the pallet holds liquid.
The pattern for this dock is drums, bags and fire. Ask the maker about chemical resistance of the resin for your product, and for the fire listing. A pallet is not a containment system; ask separately if that matters.
Footprints and the rating to read first
| Footprint | Why it comes up | Read first |
|---|---|---|
| 48 x 48 | Four 55-gallon drums without overhang | Static |
| 45 x 45 | CP9 chemical standard | Static |
Write the footprint and rating first. There is no published per-trailer count for 45 x 45 or 48 x 48 in our figures, so we size from the maker's stack height.
Where the jobs are
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 892,426 average private jobs in chemical manufacturing (NAICS 325) across 25,801 establishments in 2025. That is 35 jobs per establishment on average, a computed figure (jobs divided by establishments) that shows whether the industry is made of large plants or many small sites.
| State | Jobs, 2025 | Share of US |
|---|---|---|
| Texas | 90,310 | 10.1% |
| California | 75,499 | 8.5% |
| Ohio | 49,328 | 5.5% |
| Illinois | 48,745 | 5.5% |
| New Jersey | 47,966 | 5.4% |
Texas alone holds 10.1% of the national total, and the five leading states together hold 34.9%. Shares are computed from the BLS figures shown. They show where the freight and the docks are, not how many pallets the industry buys.
Drums, bags and the insurer
A chemical plant ships in drums and bags, and the footprint follows: the 48 x 48 holds four 55-gallon drums without overhang, and the 45 x 45 is the CP9 chemical standard at 1140 x 1140 mm. The insurer's question is separate and sharper: whether the pallet is a listed one, because an unlisted plastic pallet may raise the commodity class by two.
- Number of drums or bags per layer and layers per stack.
- Chemical resistance of the resin to the product, from the maker.
- Fire listing and the sprinkler basis of the building.
- Whether the pallet must contain a spill, which is a different product.
Two footprints, two jobs
| Footprint | In inches | In millimetres | Used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 48 x 48 | 48 x 48 | 1219 x 1219 | Four 55-gallon drums without overhang |
| 45 x 45 | 45 x 45 | 1140 x 1140 | CP9 chemical standard, bags, boxes, drums, container cubing |
The two differ by 3 in on each side, or 6.6 percent of the longer side. A plant that handles both should order them as two separate lines with their own ratings rather than as a single "chemical pallet".
Dock checks for a chemical maker
- Ask whether a drip or spill pallet is needed, since a standard deck lets liquid pass through.
- Ask whether a fire rating is required by the site or the insurer.
- Check the resin against the product, since some chemicals attack some plastics.
Documents a chemical buyer usually wants
- The resin name and grade.
- A fire listing or test report, if the site requires one.
- Chemical compatibility notes from the maker for the product on the pallet.
- The three load ratings, with the test each came from.
From request to trailer
- Send the ship-to. A delivery ZIP, a footprint and a quantity, in pallets or in trailers. If you do not know a rating, describe the load.
- We match a model. We pick a maker and model whose published static, dynamic and racking load fit the load, and say so when only one maker fits.
- You get a count. The quote carries the maker's own per-trailer figure where one is published, and says plainly where none is.
- Papers and delivery. For food or pharma we attach the resin and colourant documents. A standing supply repeats the same line on every order.
What a complete request carries
- The footprint, in inches or millimetres, and whether it is fixed by a rack bay or a container.
- How many pallets, or how many 53 ft trailers.
- The ratings the load needs: static for the stack, dynamic for the move, racking only if the pallet sits on beams.
- Food, pharma, chemical, automotive, warehouse or export use, which sets the papers.
- One load now, or a standing supply with the same line on every order.
- Where it goes and when, and anything marked on the pallet: colour, logo, RFID tag.
Terms on this page
- Static load
- Weight a pallet carries at rest, or the bottom pallet carries when stacked. The highest of the three ratings.
- CP9
- A chemical-industry pallet standard, 1140 x 1140 mm.
- Closed deck
- Solid top deck with no gaps; keeps small items from falling through.
- Picture frame
- A raised rim around the deck edge that keeps cartons from sliding off.
- Runners
- Bottom rails that touch the floor or rack and carry the load.
- Lip
- Raised edge on the deck, or an optional soft lip, that keeps the load in place.
- Anti-slip
- Textured deck or rubber grommets that reduce load slip.
- Multi-trip pallet
- A pallet designed to be returned and reused many times.
- One-way pallet
- A cheaper pallet shipped with the load and not expected back.
- Captive pallet
- A pallet owned and kept inside one company or loop.
Questions at the dock
What size pallet fits four drums?
A 48 x 48 holds four 55-gallon drums without overhang.
What is CP9?
A chemical industry pallet standard, 45 x 45 in (1140 x 1140 mm).
Keep reading
Last reviewed 2026-11-12.