Specialty Chemicals Drive Continued Growth in the U.S. Chemicals Industry

5/23/2019 | 5 min read

This Thomas Index Report is sponsored by Mayzo, a leading diversified global supplier of sustainable and innovative specialty chemicals.

Hello. In this week’s Thomas Index Report, we’re going to take a look at sourcing activity for Chemicals by users of the Thomasnet.com platform. Our data shows that sourcing activity in this category is up 9% year over year.

Over the past 12 weeks, our data shows that sourcing activity is up 10% over its historical average in the sub-categories of Specialty Chemicals, Agricultural Chemicals, and Industrial & Technical Chemicals.

The U.S. chemical industry is huge, accounting for roughly 15% of our country’s manufacturing economic sector in 2018. The industry also accounts for nearly 15% of global chemical shipments, making the U.S. a world leader in chemical production and exports.

More than 10,000 American businesses produce over 70,000 chemical products, and as a hotbed of innovation, the industry is awarded a significant percentage of the patents granted in the U.S. each year. A key area of innovation is in the category of specialty chemicals.

Unlike commodity chemicals, which are virtually identical regardless of the manufacturer, specialty chemicals are a mixture of different chemical substances designed for specific performance characteristics and functions.

This includes everything from adhesives, antioxidants, coatings, and lubricants to food additives, fragrances, cosmetic additives, and countless more, for the full spectrum of industries.

As the world looks for a more eco-friendly impact from products and services virtually across the board, new specialty chemicals will be relied upon heavily to provide those eco-friendly solutions, and that bodes well for the continued growth potential in this industry.

In fact, analysts expect the specialty chemicals market to grow at a combined annual growth rate of 5.3% through 2027.

Major players such as Dow-DuPont, BASF, PPG Industries, and Merck clearly see that potential, and in addition to investing heavily in capacity expansion and facility modernization, many have been aggressive in their mergers and acquisitions as they seek to expand and diversify their capabilities in the market.

Moving on, here’s a look at the top 10 industrial product and service categories being sourced on the Thomasnet.com platform over the past four weeks.

To get this weekly Thomas Index Report – as well as daily news and information for industry – please sign up for our Thomas Industry Update newsletter here.

Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next week.