Industries · Chemical
Selling plastic pallets from chemical
Chemical and drum shippers use 48 x 48 and 45 x 45 pallets, chosen for chemical resistance and for drums and bags. The first question on a chemical lot is what the pallets carried.
Last reviewed November 12, 2026
What chemical sellers have
Chemical shippers use square pallets built for drums and bags. They sell when a product line ends, a route changes the container cube, or a plant moves to a different footprint.
Footprints and styles in chemical lots
| Reads | Which | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 48 x 48 | four 55-gallon drums without overhang |
| Size | 45 x 45 | the CP9 chemical standard |
| Size | 48 x 40 | the general footprint |
| Style | stackable | heavy static loads |
| Style | injection moulded | resistance and repair |
| Style | rackable | where racks are used |
The chemical market in numbers
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Private jobs | 892,426 |
| Establishments | 25,801 |
| Top states | Texas 90,310; California 75,499; Ohio 49,328; Illinois 48,745; New Jersey 47,966 |
Port Houston says its 2025 growth included petrochemical and industrial shipments, with 4,303,345 TEUs handled on public terminals, which is why Texas is the heart of this industry's pallet flow.
How a chemical lot is read
A buyer reads a chemical lot for contamination. Say what the pallets carried: drums of what, bags of what. Residue changes what a pallet can be used for next.
Square pallets flex at the centre, so a buyer looks for sag and corner cracks.
What to say when you send a chemical lot
- What the drums or bags held
- Whether the pallets were cleaned
- Footprint: 48 x 48, 45 x 45 or other
- Count and ZIP
SOLD
Chemical pallets that are whole, unmarked and described.
RETURN
Chemical pallets with a pool name, a customer code or an RFID tag.
SCRAP
Chemical pallets with cracked, burnt or crushed decks.
Do you take pallets that held chemicals?
Send the lot and say what they carried. A pallet with a hazardous contamination may not be sellable; one that carried a benign product may.
What does CP9 mean?
A chemical-industry pallet standard, 1140 x 1140 mm. See 45 x 45 pallets.
Words you will meet
- CP9
- A chemical-industry pallet standard, 1140 x 1140 mm.
- HDPE
- High-density polyethylene, resin code 2. The most common resin in plastic pallets; tough and moisture resistant.
- Virgin resin
- New, unblended resin that has not been through a product before.
- PP
- Polypropylene. More rigid than HDPE and better with heat and harsh chemicals; used where rack stiffness matters.
- Regrind
- Plastic ground from used or scrap parts into flakes for moulding again.
- 2-way entry
- Forks enter from two opposite sides only.
- ISPM 15
- The international standard for treating wood packaging against pests. Plastic pallets are outside it.
- RFID
- Radio tag moulded or fixed into a pallet so it can be tracked.
- UL 2335
- UL fire-test standard for storage pallets, with an idle pallet test and a commodity storage test.
- Structural foam
- Low-pressure moulding where a blowing agent expands the resin in the mould.
- Rotational moulding
- Resin heated in a rotating mould to make a hollow jointless part.
- Compression moulding
- Moulding by pressing resin in a closed mould; one of six processes in use.
- GMA pallet
- The 48 x 40 in North American standard footprint.
- Welding repair
- Plastic is hard to glue, so cracked parts are normally welded.
- Resin identification code
- Number on a plastic part for the resin, which does not itself say whether it is recyclable.
- Recycled-content pallet
- A pallet moulded partly or wholly from post-industrial or post-consumer resin.
Who asks, and what they need
- Chemical and drum shippers
- 48 x 48 and 45 x 45 pallets for drums and bags; chemical resistance.
- Closed-loop and captive pallet users
- Large uniform lots of one size and style; repair and replacement parts.
- Export shippers
- Light or low-cost one-way pallets with no ISPM 15 treatment; Euro 1200 x 800 and 1200 x 1000 sizes.
What the sources say
- Private employers in the US averaged 350,886 jobs across 7,786 establishments in pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing (NAICS 3254) in 2025 (BLS QCEW). States with the most jobs: California (42,575), New Jersey (30,062), North Carolina (26,998), New York (25,087), Illinois (24,257). (data.bls.gov)
- Private employers in the US averaged 892,426 jobs across 25,801 establishments in chemical manufacturing (NAICS 325) in 2025 (BLS QCEW). States with the most jobs: Texas (90,310), California (75,499), Ohio (49,328), Illinois (48,745), New Jersey (47,966). (data.bls.gov)
- Private employers in the US averaged 829,364 jobs across 49,933 establishments in grocery and related product wholesale (NAICS 4244) in 2025 (BLS QCEW). States with the most jobs: California (109,827), Texas (75,474), Florida (63,967), New York (50,594), Illinois (48,629). (data.bls.gov)
- Port Houston says it supports 1.54 million jobs in Texas and 3.37 million nationwide, and that its 2025 growth included petrochemical and industrial shipments, manufacturing-related freight and consumer imports. (porthouston.com)
- Private employers in the US averaged 288,633 jobs across 934 establishments in motor vehicle manufacturing (NAICS 3361) in 2025 (BLS QCEW). States with the most jobs: Michigan (44,870), Texas (28,069), California (27,690), Kentucky (23,308), Alabama (22,311). (data.bls.gov)
- Private employers in the US averaged 168,222 jobs across 2,809 establishments in dairy product manufacturing (NAICS 3115) in 2025 (BLS QCEW). States with the most jobs: Wisconsin (28,840), California (18,374), New York (11,603), Ohio (8,963), Texas (7,529). (data.bls.gov)
- Private employers in the US averaged 521,212 jobs across 6,414 establishments in motor vehicle parts manufacturing (NAICS 3363) in 2025 (BLS QCEW). States with the most jobs: Michigan (111,465), Ohio (62,025), Indiana (52,146), Tennessee (38,791), Kentucky (32,261). (data.bls.gov)
- Private employers in the US averaged 575,006 jobs across 12,344 establishments in plastics product manufacturing (NAICS 3261) in 2025 (BLS QCEW). States with the most jobs: Ohio (42,286), Texas (40,945), California (35,933), Pennsylvania (34,094), Indiana (33,122). (data.bls.gov)
- Counties with the most private warehousing and storage jobs (NAICS 493) in 2025, BLS QCEW: San Bernardino County, California (67,058), Riverside County, California (51,310), Dallas County, Texas (44,657), Maricopa County, Arizona (42,291), San Joaquin County, California (28,518), Clark County, Nevada (28,250), Middlesex County, New Jersey (26,309), Will County, Illinois (25,357). (data.bls.gov)
- Port Houston's public terminals handled 4,303,345 TEUs in 2025 (up 4 percent, a record) and 54,491,066 short tons of cargo; the Houston Ship Channel is described as the nation's largest port for waterborne tonnage, with more than 200 private and eight public terminals. (porthouston.com)
- Counties with the most private motor vehicle manufacturing jobs (NAICS 3361) in 2025, BLS QCEW, counties with disclosed data only: Wayne County, Michigan (24,188), Bexar County, Texas (6,165), Cook County, Illinois (5,473), Eaton County, Michigan (4,432), Oakland County, Michigan (735), Los Angeles County, California (643). (data.bls.gov)
- Counties with the most private dairy product manufacturing jobs (NAICS 3115) in 2025, BLS QCEW, counties with disclosed data only: Sheboygan County, Wisconsin (3,238), Los Angeles County, California (3,204), Franklin County, Ohio (2,930), Tulare County, California (2,916), Dodge County, Wisconsin (2,659), Marathon County, Wisconsin (2,535). (data.bls.gov)
- Counties with the most private grocery and related product wholesale jobs (NAICS 4244) in 2025, BLS QCEW, counties with disclosed data only: Los Angeles County, California (36,194), Cook County, Illinois (23,404), Miami-Dade County, Florida (14,422), Harris County, Texas (14,172), Dallas County, Texas (12,337), Maricopa County, Arizona (9,996). (data.bls.gov)
- Private employers in the US averaged 1,775,008 jobs across 42,763 establishments in food manufacturing (NAICS 311) in 2025 (BLS QCEW). States with the most jobs: California (166,660), Texas (112,088), Illinois (98,300), Pennsylvania (82,538), Wisconsin (81,993). (data.bls.gov)
- Private employers in the US averaged 556,647 jobs across 4,689 establishments in meat and poultry processing (NAICS 3116) in 2025 (BLS QCEW). States with the most jobs: Texas (44,780), Georgia (42,030), North Carolina (35,715), Arkansas (34,773), Iowa (33,386). (data.bls.gov)
- Counties with the most private pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing jobs (NAICS 3254) in 2025, BLS QCEW, counties with disclosed data only: Lake County, Illinois (16,883), Marion County, Indiana (16,292), Montgomery County, Pennsylvania (11,878), Suffolk County, New York (10,760), Los Angeles County, California (8,300), San Diego County, California (8,028). (data.bls.gov)
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