Where Is the Cleaning Sector Cleaning Up?

The recently published Ingredients for Household, Industrial, and Institutional Cleaning Applications report by international market research and management consulting firm Kline finds that some country markets are increasing at double-digit rates during the forecast period from 2014-2019.

While mature markets like Europe and the US represent a large portion of total sales, accounting for over $11 billion, developing markets, particularly China, are gaining market share. The Southeast Asia region is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 4.7% through 2019. India is forecast to post the strongest growth of almost 13% over the same timespan.

The household segment dominates in all regions; however, in mature markets like Europe and the US, the industrial and institutional (I&I) segment has a relatively higher share compared to other regions. Laundry care applications are the key for ingredient consumption across the board, followed by hard surface cleaners and dish care applications.

“I&I is more price sensitive than the household segment and therefore formulators in this segment are reluctant to use expensive ingredients like enzymes and fragrances,” commented Kunal Mahajan, project manager, chemicals and energy at Kline. “For example, enzymes like proteases and amylases are used in dish care products for household segment, but not for I&I segment.”

The shift of laundry detergent from a powder to liquid form will continue to grow across the board, reshaping the industry. For instance, in China, liquid laundry detergent is expected to grow rapidly at a CAGR of around 20% through 2019. The Southeast Asia market, which was historically dominated by powder detergent, is now also shifting to liquid alternatives. This gradual shift in the Southeast Asia region will drive the demand for high-end products, such as enzymes, synthetic organic polymers and specialty silicones.

Also, the shift from powder to liquid is having a direct influence over the choice of ingredients in general, particularly with surfactants. For instance, in the past five years, nonionic surfactants have overtaken anionic surfactants in the US and European markets and are now the most consumed surfactants in the HI&I industry in these markets. Additionally, this shift is expected to contribute to the growth of the antimicrobial market, mainly preservatives.

Growing demand for effective and eco-friendly products has been observed in the industry. As the market continues to focus on high efficacy, milder, and eco-friendly products, sales of products such as enzymes, alkyl polyglucosides, and others will continue to grow.

Enzymes are expected to take advantage of the move toward ingredients with higher biodegradability, but also toward ingredients providing a better performance to cleaning products. Favored by these two trends, the enzymes market is expected to grow almost twice as fast as the market average, at 7.3%. In Europe and the US, consumption of enzymes is additionally boosted as their penetration increases in the I&I segment during the 2014-2019 forecast period.