Surfactants Market By Product Types [Anionic, Non-Ionic, Cationic, Amphoteric], Substrates [Synthetic/Petrochemical, Bio-Based/ Natural/Green], Geography & Applications – Global Industry Trends And Forecasts To 2017

Surfactant is a term derived from contraction of the terms ‘Surface Active Agents’. These are a group of amphiphilic organic compounds which help to lower the surface tension of a liquid or interfacial tension between two liquids. These usually act as a detergents or wetting agents or emulsifiers or foaming agents. The wetting and penetration effect, emulsification, dispersion, foaming, detergency, conditioning, and substantivity are some of the important properties of surfactants due to which these are widely used across different industries. The report describes about global surfactant market based on the geography, product types, substrate type, and application of surfactants. The report covers qualitative aspect of surfactants and detailed volume (thousand tons) and value ($million) forecasts (2010-2017) of surfactants.

The surfactant market is derived by studying consumption trends across the regions such as Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America, and Rest of World (ROW). Europe is estimated to be the largest consumer of surfactants, followed by North America and Asia-Pacific with an estimation that the later would rise to be the second largest surfactant consumer in next five years, replacing North America. The report also covers the surfactant consumption and revenue trends by their product type (based on their charge) like anionic, non-ionic, cationic, and amphoteric; where anionic surfactants are estimated to reveal largest consumption across the globe. The surfactant consumption by their substrate type (synthetic/petrochemical and bio-based/natural/renewable) is also included in this study of global surfactant market. In addition to the aforesaid segments, the report describes about the applications in which surfactants are majorly consumed. The applications covered are: soap/detergents, personal care, textile, I&I cleaning, elastomers & plastics, oilfield chemicals, food, pharmaceuticals, crop protection, and other applications such as paints and coatings, pulp and paper industries. The price trends of the surfactant have been analyzed from annual reports of major players.

The drivers, restraints, and opportunities are identified for the surfactants market based on synthetic and bio-based surfactants categories. The synthetic surfactants have drivers such as easy availability, low price, and broadened application areas, whereas drivers for bio-based surfactants are their ecological benefits, wide range of substrates available, increasing awareness towards eco-friendly products. Synthetic surfactant is a matured market and the restraints for this market are volatile petroleum prices and environmental concerns. On the contrary, bio-based surfactant market is in its initial stages of growth, and the restraints identified in the market are technical constraints, their prices when compared to synthetic surfactants, and unskilled workforces. The opportunity for synthetic surfactants is its use in the treatment of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome, whereas the opportunities for bio-based surfactants are cited in the utilization of industrial and agricultural wastes, and usage of biosurfactants in unconventional markets.

The overall surfactants market is fragmented and no clear global market leader has emerged. However, few major players include AkzoNobel N.V. (The Netherlands), BASF SE (Germany), Henkel (Germany), P&G Chemicals (U.S.), Stepan Company (U.S.), and The Dow Chemical Company (U.S.).

Various primary and secondary data sources such as industry expert interviews, data from research institutes and industrial majors, encyclopedia, directories, and databases are used to identify and collect information useful for this extensive commercial study of global surfactant market.