Chemical Intermediates Market size is forecast to reach around $132.1 billion by 2026, after growing at a CAGR of 8.2% during 2021-2026. Chemical intermediate is used for manufacturing drugs and agriculture chemicals such as pesticides and fertilizer. The primary occupation of every country is agriculture, and the growing acceptance of sustainable farming is driving the market growth. The increasing demand for food coupled with surging population further drive the growth of agriculture sector, which in turn propel the market growth in the coming years. Efficient crop production with better quality is required to satisfy this growing demand. The demand for agrochemical products is projected to be driven by these factors, thereby positively impacting the demand of the chemical intermediates market. Moreover, the development in the end-use industries such as petrochemicals, paints, building and construction, and pharmaceutical are driving the Chemical Intermediate Market growth during the forecast period.

Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19, the demand of chemical intermediates in end use industry has reduced drastically, which tends to reduce the consumption of chemical intermediates, and thus constraining the growth of the market during the forecast period. 

The “Chemical Intermediates Market report – Forecast (2021-2026)”, by IndustryARC, covers an in-depth analysis of the following segments of the Chemical Intermediates Market.

By Form: Solid, Liquid, and Gas  

By Product: Ethylene Amines,  Monochloroacetic Acid (MCA), Caustic Products, Hydrochloric Acid, Chloromethanes, Hydrogen Peroxide, Sodium chlorate and Others.

By Application: Pharmaceutical, Agrochemical, Automotive, Petrochemical, Lubricants and Others.

By End Use Industry: Chemical & Petrochemical, Energy & Power, Transportation, Food & Beverages, Healthcare, Paint and Coatings, Agriculture, and Others.

By Geography: North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and RoW. 

Solid segment held the largest share of more than 45% in the chemical intermediates market in 2020. The largest form of chemical intermediates is produced in solid form. It is suitable for a wide variety of applications along with the easy storage and transport and low-cost compared to liquid chemical intermediates. Most of the solid sodium chemical intermediates will be dissolving into the water for converting into a liquid form to use in the applications like pharmaceutical, agriculture, automotive, petrochemical, lubricants and others.  

Ethylene amines held the largest share of more than 40% in the chemical intermediates market in 2020. In particular, ethylene amines are volatile compounds that have the potential to alter the properties of chemicals. Ethylene amine is commonly used in gas sweetening, building and construction additives, oil cutting, seed protection, and other uses. The benefits of ethylene amine is low environmental impact, low energy consumption, and high yields when compared with other product type, which boost consumer demand.

Pharmaceutical sector held the largest share of more than 30% in the chemical intermediates market in 2020, and is growing with a CAGR of 10.8% during the forecast period 2021-2026. Chemical intermediates have an important use in the pharmaceutical industry, and the growing use of chemical intermediates in the manufacture of medicinal products is driving the consumer demand. Due to the growing prevalence of illnesses, drug availability, and favorable government policies, the development of the pharmaceutical industry is driven by medical advancement. With innovations in science and technology, research in pharmaceutical industry is entering a new age in the production of drugs, resulting in reduced mortality. For example, some of the new advances in medical science responsible for lowered mortality are the regulation of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease through antihypertensive and cholesterol-lowering drugs, and the control of cancers by targeted treatment. It is expected that developments in medical research will lead the pharmaceutical industry to have a positive effect on the global chemical intermediates market.

Healthcare sector held the largest share of more than 30% in the chemical intermediates market in 2020. The rising prevalence of chronic diseases and growing R&D initiatives and activities in the pharmaceutical industry are some of the factors that drive market growth. There has been an increase in the use of emerging technology for improved drug candidate identification, such as high throughput, bioinformatics, and combinatorial chemistry. With new formations of chemical intermediates, drug research has advanced significantly, allowing the method to become more refined, reliable, and less time-consuming and is expected that the use of pharmaceutical chemical intermediates will expand steadily.

Asia Pacific dominated the chemical intermediates market in 2020 in terms of revenue with a share of 52.7% and is projected to dominate the market during the forecast period (2021-2026) followed by Europe and North America. In APAC, China is dominating due to China’s chemical-technology capabilities are rapidly advancing. APAC growth is mainly attributed due to the production technology has been widely available and also easy access for raw materials. The chemical intermediates industry is moving into a new phase of development by shifting toward specialty-chemical growth, reflecting consumer-demand trends and the rising sophistication of industrial output in APAC. These trends are supporting the growth prospects of the chemical intermediates industry.  

To produce a broad variety of chemicals, chemical intermediate is used as a building block. Therefore, there is a strong demand in the industry for the manufacture of many types of chemicals. Chemical intermediates are commonly used for the manufacture of essential chemicals for agriculture, including pesticides and fertilizers. As a result, the major growth factor of this industry is increasing agricultural production. The pharmaceutical industry is a frequent user of chemical intermediates where, as needed, they are employed in drug manufacturing. Growing disease prevalence and consistent attempts to produce new medications are factors that promote the development of chemical intermediate market.

The chemical 5-hydroxymethyl-furfural (HMF) building blocks can be obtained with good yield from biomass and has the ability to be transformed into a multitude of interesting products by only few stages. The conversion of HMF to 1-hydroxyhexane-2,5-dione (HHD) has been researched by many groups over the last 20 years. It is possible to transform HMF into HHD by hydrogenation/hydrolytic ring opening reaction in aqueous phase using different heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysts. State-of-the-art HHD synthesis, including mechanistic aspects of its formation, and recent developments in the use of HHD as a building block for many valuable chemicals, including pyrroles, derivatives of cyclopentanone and triols. The demand for chemical intermediates is rising due to the bio based chemical intermediate building blocks.

The raw materials used to produce chemical intermediates are the downstream components of crude oil. The price of raw materials from chemical intermediates is also hampered by demand volatility in crude oil. In the past year, according to the BP Statistical Study of World Energy, the market volatility of crude oil, such as the price of crude oil, rose from $98.95 in 2014 to $52.39 in 2015 and grew from $43.73 in 2016 to $71.31 in 2018. And the price of chemical intermediates is also rising due to this uncertainty about the price of crude oil. The volatility in crude oil prices is therefore projected to be a major challenge for the chemical intermediate industry suppliers, hampering the growth of the chemical intermediate market during the forecast period.

Many of the bio based chemical building blocks currently available are based on staple agricultural goods, such as sugars and vegetable oils, which can differ considerably in price and are costly. A significant amount of feedstock would be required, provided that many chemical building blocks are bulk chemicals. Some are concerned that the ability of the Europe to supply extra sugar and oils is limited, while others claim that the potential for yield improvement of those commodities in Eastern European countries is still strong. As they are both inexpensive and readily available in Europe, the use of waste and residue sources will be desirable. In order to encourage the use of alternate feedstock sources and reduce processing costs, a range of technological challenges, particularly related to downstream processing, need to be resolved, but even if these challenges are successfully solved, it would be important to convince extremely conservative processors to adjust the production process to accept a new feedstock or a product with different properties.

Technology launches, acquisitions and R&D activities are key strategies adopted by players in the Chemical Intermediates Market report. In 2020, the market of chemical intermediates has been consolidated by the top 10 companies accounting for xx% of the share. Major players in the Chemical Intermediates Market are Dow, INVISTA, BASF SE, Akzo Nobel NV, Stepan Company, LG Royal DSM, SABIC, Chevron Corporation, Jay Chemical, Exxon Mobil Corporation, among others.