An overview of the Global and European consumption of surfactants in household, industrial, and institutional cleaning applications

corresponding

KUNALl MAHAJAN
Kline Group
Hyderabad, India

Abstract

Due to variety of factors, including rising awareness of health and hygiene concerns in developing markets, sales of cleaning products are forecast to increase at double-digit rates in some countries consequently driving sales of ingredients used in these products. While some ingredient groups, such as enzymes, mainly in the I&I segment, are expected to increase at a faster rate even in mature markets such as Europe, surfactants will maintain their dominance as they are a must in cleaning formulations while some of the other ingredients can be, in many cases, considered optional. However, some trends including a shift towards eco-friendly formulations and unit doses/concentrated products will be shaping the surfactants market by, as an example, higher usage of surfactants with a more favorable environmental profile.


INTRODUCTION

Cleaning products have become entrenched as an important part in our everyday life. They are essential for maintaining the health and hygiene standards in any setting, whether household, industrial, or institutional (HI&I). The market’s size for cleaning products is more than USD 100 billion and growing rapidly due to dynamic factors including a growing population, the rising awareness of health and hygiene concerns, and increasing income levels, particularly in developing countries. These factors have triggered sales of cleaning products to grow at double-digit rates in some countries in the last few years. As a result, sales of ingredients used in these products have also witnessed a strong performance and are forecast to grow further.


GLOBAL MARKET OVERVIEW

The market for HI&I ingredients in the five regions covered in Kline’s recently published Ingredients for Household, Industrial, and Institutional Cleaning Applications database is valued at EUR 13.9 billion (USD 18.4 billion) in 2015. With 37% and 27% shares, respectively, Europe and the United States are the two largest markets in ...