Industrial companies, explained.

3M is a diversified technology company that turns materials science into abrasives, tapes and adhesives, safety gear, electrical and electronics materials, films and consumer brands like Post-it and Scotch.

Airbus builds commercial airliners, helicopters, military aircraft and satellites, selling them to airlines, lessors and governments and earning more from services after delivery.

BASF is the world's largest chemical company by sales: it makes basic chemicals, plastics, catalysts, nutrition ingredients and crop protection in linked "Verbund" sites, selling them to around 75,000 industrial customers.

Boeing builds commercial jets, military aircraft and space systems, and earns recurring revenue from parts, training and support for the fleets it has sold.

Bosch is a foundation-owned German technology group that supplies car parts and software and sells power tools, home appliances and heating.

Caterpillar makes construction and mining machines, engines, gas turbines and locomotives, sells them through independent Cat dealers worldwide and earns on parts, service and financing for as long as they run.

Cemex makes and sells cement, ready-mix concrete and aggregates in Mexico, the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America, earning most of its margin on branded bagged cement in Mexico and on concrete and aggregates for U.S. construction.

Continental develops and makes premium tires for cars, trucks, buses and bikes, sells about three-quarters of them as replacements through dealers, and has agreed to sell its ContiTech industrial rubber business to become a pure tire maker.

Eni is an Italian integrated energy company that finds and produces oil and gas around the world, trades gas and LNG, refines fuels and makes biofuels, and sells power and gas to about 10 million customers through Plenitude.

ExxonMobil produces oil and gas, refines it into fuels, and makes chemicals and lubricants, with its profit mostly coming from production in the Permian Basin, Guyana and other fields.

Lockheed Martin builds fighter jets, missiles, helicopters and satellites, mostly for the U.S. government and its allies, and supports them for decades under long contracts.

Lofthouse of Fleetwood manufactures and distributes menthol lozenges and confectionery, with Fisherman's Friend as its flagship brand.

Panasonic Holdings owns the Panasonic group, which makes electrical equipment, air conditioners, appliances, car and data-center batteries, electronic parts and supply-chain and aviation systems.

Repsol produces oil and gas, refines it in five Spanish industrial complexes and sells fuels, electricity and gas through more than 4,400 service stations and 3 million home customers.

Rheinmetall is Germany’s largest defence company: it makes artillery and tank ammunition, weapons, armoured vehicles such as Boxer, Puma and Lynx, military trucks, Skyranger air defence and, since 2026, naval ships, mostly for Germany and other European armed forces under multi-year framework contracts.

Rolls-Royce Holdings makes jet engines for widebody airliners and business jets, military engines and submarine reactors, and mtu power systems, and earns most of its civil profit from long-term service contracts paid per hour each engine flies; it is unrelated to BMW's Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.

RTX makes jet engines (Pratt & Whitney), aircraft systems (Collins Aerospace) and missiles and air-defense systems (Raytheon), and earns much of its profit servicing the engines and parts already flying.

Safran makes, with GE, the LEAP and CFM56 engines that power most single-aisle airliners, plus helicopter and military engines, landing gear, nacelles, avionics and cabin interiors, and earns most of its profit from spare parts and services for the engines already flying.

Schneider Electric sells the equipment that distributes and controls electricity — circuit breakers, switchgear, UPS, cooling and automation — together with energy and industrial software, to data centres, buildings, factories and grids worldwide.

Seagate designs and manufactures hard drives, from its own read heads and disks, and sells mostly high-capacity nearline drives to cloud operators and equipment makers.

Shell is an integrated energy company that produces oil and gas, liquefies and trades LNG, refines fuels and sells them through petrol stations, lubricants and chemicals.

Subaru builds all-wheel-drive cars and SUVs such as the Forester, Crosstrek and Outback in Japan and Indiana, sells most of them in North America, and makes aircraft parts for Boeing and helicopters for Japan's defense forces.

The Tata group is an Indian conglomerate of 31 companies, from IT services and steel to cars, tea and airlines, held together by the holding company Tata Sons.

TotalEnergies is an integrated energy company that produces oil, gas and LNG, refines and sells fuels and chemicals, and is building an electricity business centred on renewables and flexible gas power.

Union Pacific runs a freight railroad across 23 western U.S. states, hauling grain, coal, chemicals, cars and shipping containers to ports, the Midwest and the Mexican border.

The Volvo Group (AB Volvo) builds trucks under the Volvo, Renault Trucks and Mack brands, plus construction equipment, buses and Volvo Penta engines, and finances and services them for transport and infrastructure customers in almost 180 markets; it is a separate company from Volvo Cars.