Demand up for multifunctional, specialty products
By Staff -- Purchasing, 10/7/1999
Increasingly, the surfactants business is global, prompting suppliers to follow customers not only to different parts of the world, but also toward new and improved end products. This shift increasingly benefits specialty surfactants, which provide more specific benefits to users.Surfactants are found in many consumer and industrial products, functioning as detergents, wetting and foaming agents, dispersants, and penetrants. Although most commonly associated with household or industrial detergents and cleaners and personal care products, surfactants also are used in many forms of industrial processing.
Demand for surfactants in the U.S. is projected to increase at 2.7%/yr through 2002, according to The Freedonia Group. Many large-volume commodity surfactants are growing at 2%-3%/yr, but demand for smaller-volume specialty surfactants is projected to grow in the double digits.
The use of specialty surfactants is poised to increase even further in the years ahead, due to changes in the way detergent products are formulated. "Business has been pretty good, and there has been a lot of replacement of older technologies--especially in the antimicrobials area," says Terri Romeo, marketing director for algroup lonza. The company makes specialty surfactants including cationics such as quarteraries, and nonionics such as amineoxides, betains, esters, and amphoterics. "There has been a lot of consumer awareness over improved hygiene and wanting to kill germs," she says. This has boosted demand for surfactants going into disinfectant and cleaning products.
Multifunctional products
A significant trend in surfactants is toward multifunctional products that can provide several different benefits in one surfactant package. This drive for more specialized products is due to the way products are formulated. For example: When a consumer product is reformulated to provide mildness or antibacterial properties, it is often specialty surfactants that are used. Customers want to have both benefits combined in one surfactant system, as opposed to having to use several different products.
These changes are often driven by end-user demands. If household users want liquid detergents that are lower foaming or sudsing, the manufacturer turns to surfactant suppliers for results.
Demand for anionic surfactants (which are used in laundry detergents) will continue to be the main type of surfactant used through 2002, according to Freedonia. However, the strongest growth will be found in other areas. Amphoteric surfactants, which account for less than 1% of total demand, will show the strongest growth due to their mildness, and use in surfactant blends. Cationics and nonionics will show growth due to the shift toward concentrated detergent formulations where they allow for properties including fabric softening and germ elimination.
Stable prices ahead
Linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS) is one of the major commodity surfactant products. Contract and spot prices for LAS hit 50¢/lb in August and were forecast to remain there through early 2000, according to Purchasing's monthly transaction price survey.
For specialties, watch feedstocks to see where prices may be headed. Primary feedstocks for surfactants are ethylene, benzene, olefins, and alcohols. According to Purchasing's price survey, buyers say ethylene contracts will fall into 2000, dropping from 25¢/lb in August to 18¢/lb in early 2000. Benzene prices are also forecast to fall--with contracts dipping from 80¢/lb in August to 72¢/lb in the first quarter of 2000. Spot prices are forecast to remain at 72¢/lb.
About 200 companies in the U.S. produce surfactants. Some are huge detergent companies that mostly produce for their own internal uses--such as Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, and Lever Bros. Other producers are chemical and petrochemical manufacturers, including such companies as Air Products and Chemicals, Akzo Nobel, basf, Condea-Vista, Dow Chemical, DuPont, Henkel, ICI, algroup lonza, Pilot Chemical, Rhone-Poulenc, Shell, Stepan, and Union Carbide. The number of suppliers in the surfactant market is shrinking. In 1999, announcements were made that Rhone-Poulenc would buy Albright & Wilson. The giant Dow Chemical/ Union Carbide merger will create an even bigger player in the surfactant field. Recently Witco announced it would sell its oleochemicals and surfactants business to Goldschmidt of Germany.
Talkback
Related Content
Related Content
Sponsored Links
View All Blogs
Now Playing:
