Surfactants lower the surface tension of a liquid, so that usually non-mixable liquids can be mixed. The market research institute Ceresana Research expects the global surfactant market to generate revenues of more than US$41 billion in 2018—translating to an average annual growth of 4.5 percent. With a roughly 37 percent share of global consumption, Asia-Pacific is the largest surfactant outlet, followed by North America and Western Europe.

Over the next eight years, shares in demand of the individual world regions will shift significantly. The analysts from Ceresana forecast countries in Asia-Pacific to increase their shares in the global surfactant market mainly at the expense of Western Europe and North America. In addition, South America will see strong growth, above all because of massive increases in production in Brazil.

Global demand for anionic surfactants was approximately 6.5 million tons in 2010. Anionic and non-ionic surfactants combined account for roughly 85 percent of global demand for surfactants.

“We expect non-ionic surfactants to register the strongest growth between 2010 and 2018,” said Oliver Kutsch, CEO of Ceresana.

Despite this global trend to non-ionic surfactants, anionics will remain the most widely used surfactants, especially in Africa, the Middle East and Asian countries, with the exception of Japan and South Korea.

This study comprises more than 640 pages, 122 colored graphs and 168 tables. An eight-year review as well as production, revenue and demand forecasts up to 2018 are provided.