Ethoxylates Market is projected to reach USD 11,657.2 Million by 2019

Ethoxylates are generally non-ionic surfactants, which are produced by using ethylene oxide. Ethoxylation is the process for producing ethoxylates by adding ethylene oxide to an alcohol or phenol. Ethoxylates are used in various applications such as domestic detergents, household cleaners, personal care products, and wetting & dispersing agents. Household & personal care, and pharmaceutical are the largest applications of ethoxylates, and they collectively accounted for more than 69.6% share in terms of value in 2014.

Alcohol ethoxylate is the major type of ethoxylates capturing the largest market share of 48.8% in terms of volume, in 2014. The demand for alcohol ethoxylates is increasing as they are easily biodegradable, which makes them more environment-friendly type of ethoxylates.

The European region remains the largest market for ethoxylates, in terms of volume followed by the Asia-Pacific. The Asia-Pacific market is projected to have a good growth on account of the increasing demand of surfactants, detergents, and due to shift in consumer’s lifestyle.

The factors which are driving the growth in the ethoxylates market, include the excellent surfactant characteristics in ethoxylates, increasing demand in household & personal care, and I&I cleaning products, and shift in consumer’s lifestyles in major emerging economies in Asia-Pacific. The factors restraining the market growth are low potential of ethoxylates in developed countries, and environmental concerns regarding the toxicity issues. The major opportunity for the ethoxylates manufacturers is the development of environment friendly ethoxylates.

The ethoxylates market is extremely competitive. In terms of the global market, the industry comprises of several market participants with a few market leaders. In the ethoxylates market, there are established players, such as BASF SE (Germany), Huntsman Corporation (U.S.), Clariant AG (Switzerland), Stepan Company (Illinois), and The Dow Chemical Company (U.S.). These top players have a significant control on the market.

The players in this market have adopted various strategies in order to expand their presence and increase their market shares. Expansions, investments, and merger & acquisitions are some of the key strategies adopted by the market players to achieve growth in the ethoxylates market. Manufacturers are concentrating on expanding their operations either by increasing the production capacities of their existing plants or by starting a new production facility in untouched regions.