Economy of St. Louis

lang="EN-US">The rivers of St. Louis continue to play a large role in moving goods, especially bulk commodities such as grain, coal, salt, and certain chemicals and petroleum products. The Port of St. Louis in 2004 was the third-largest inland port by tonnage in the country, and the 21st-largest of any sort.

Major companies and institutions

As of 2013, the St. Louis area is home to nine Fortune 500 companies: Express Scripts, Emerson Electric, Monsanto, Reinsurance Group of America, Centene, Peabody Energy, Ameren, Graybar Electric, and Edward Jones Investments.

Other notable corporations from the area include MasterCard, Citigroup, Microsoft, Bank of America, TD Ameritrade, BMO Harris Bank, Arch Coal, Cassidy Turley, AT&T Communications, Scottrade, Wells Fargo Advisors (formerly A.G. Edwards), Energizer Holdings, Heritage Home Group, Kerry Group, Patriot Coal, Post Holdings, Inc., United Van Lines and Mayflower Transit, Ralcorp, Hardee's, and Enterprise Holdings (parent company of several car rental companies). Health care and biotechnology institutions with operations in St. Louis include Pfizer, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, the Solae Company, Sigma-Aldrich, and Multidata Systems International. General Motors makes railroad cars in the area, although Chrysler closed its production facility in nearby Fenton, Missouri.

Several once-independent pillars of the local economy have been purchased by other corporations. Among them are Anheuser-Busch, purchased by Belgium-based InBev; McDonnell Douglas, whose operations are now part of Boeing Defense, Space & Security; Mallinckrodt, purchased by Tyco International; and Ralston Purina, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Nestle. The May Department Stores Company (which owned