Market Edge: How Stakeholders in Water and Waste Water Treatment Chemicals Stack Up

Chemicals & Materials

Published: 2019-05-09
Report Code: REP-GB-9510
Format:

An Incisive, In-depth Analysis on the Water And Wastewater Treatment Chemicals Market

This study offers a comprehensive, 360 degree analysis on the Water And Wastewater Treatment Chemicals market, bringing to fore insights that can help stakeholders identify the opportunities as well as challenges. It tracks the global Water And Wastewater Treatment Chemicals market across key regions, and offers in-depth commentary and accurate quantitative insights. The study also includes incisive competitive landscape analysis, and provides key recommendations to market players on winning imperatives and successful strategies.

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The chemical sector has always been exposed to boisterous competition development, which frequently translates to flutter developments in the industry – as a result of strategic realignments by market actors. Water and wastewater treatment chemicals market is no different, and a recent report in competition in global water and wastewater treatment chemicals market released by Future Market Insights (FMI) presents an elucidated view of the same.

The report titled ‘Global Water and Waste Water Treatment Chemicals Market - Competition Blueprint - 2019’ is second in line publication by the Ireland-based competition intelligence research firm FMI, which regularly tracks competition development in the chemical sector and provides a matrix based assessment of company ranking on multivariate parameters. The competition blueprint report on Global Water and Waste Water Treatment Chemicals Market, identifies Ecolab Incorporated (including Nalco Holdings), Kurita, Berwind Corporation and Dorf Ketal in “Industry Titan’ category, whereas other prominent market actors such as, but not limited to CLIF, FMC Corporation, Kemira, Suez in dominator category.

Competition Blueprint is a four-dimensional matrix developed by FMI, which takes 15 parameters into consideration and classifies each parameter into three strategic indices i.e. Growth Lever Score Index, Portfolio Lever Score Index and Operational Efficiency Lever Index. Over 50 companies across the globe engaged in water & Wastewater Treatment Chemicals production have been evaluated and benchmarked on 15 pre-defined attributes.

A cumulative score of each company has been clubbed with the respective Market Share Index and a detailed matrix is developed.

It is interesting that companies that account for higher market share than their peers have not been able to fare good and rank among industry titans. Factors such as speed to market, response time to cater the request, capacity utilization rate, management leadership along with strategic priority alignment with water and wastewater treatment chemicals, limit the performance of such companies and despite being dominant, those companies are less likely to exhibit the best performance over the coming years.

Global water and wastewater treatment chemical market was valued at less than US$ 25 Bn in 2014; by 2019-end, market valuation is likely to reach US$ 30 Bn. The outlook on the market also remains positive, with market revenues likely to grow at over 4% annually in the next five years.

Water treatment chemicals find applications across a number of end-user industries where they are used to prevent corrosion and scaling of various equipment and utilities. With proper use of water wastewater treatment chemicals, the efficiency of utilities such as pipes, cooling tower and boilers can be increased significantly, which in turn, leads to enhanced production and higher energy efficiency. High process efficiency, in turn, lowers operational costs, influencing manufacturers to use water & wastewater treatment chemicals extensively during the process.

Stakeholders in the water and wastewater treatment chemical market are also exposed to their share of risks. Considering the long-term need to treat process water, various end-user industries are installing wastewater treatment equipment such as multiple effect evaporators for water treatment as opposed to water treatment chemicals. Residue salt from these water treatment equipment can be sold in open markets, adding more value to the use of these equipment for process water treatment.

This brings the need for water and wastewater treatment chemicals producers to realign strategy as per market need. Companies failing to do so eventually stand in contender and laggard category in the competition matrix and viz.a.viz losing market footprint. Key strategies adopted by market actors that have been highlighted in the report by FMI include industry-focused solution, acquiring segment specialist regional players, and spin-off.

FMI Identifies Market Leaders and Challengers in Water and Wastewater Treatment Chemicals Landscape

Future Market Insights (FMI) has released a competition assessment analysis of 50 suppliers of water & wastewater treatment chemicals worldwide, leveraging its innovative methodology Market Edge. The methodology uses a comprehensive framework to assess the vendors relative to a set of criteria that explain success in the global water & wastewater treatment chemicals market and highlights the factors likely to be critical for success for both short- and long-term. The global water & wastewater treatment chemicals market has always been exposed to higher threshold of competitive rivalry, which frequently translates to Brownian motion among players – as a result of shift in strategies.

In total, 50 suppliers of water & wastewater treatment chemicals have been assessed in the report, of which key companies include: Ecolab, Suez, Kurita, Kemira, Berwind Corporation, BASF SE / Solenis, FMC Corporation, Chemtrade Logistics Income Fund/General Chemical Holding, Thermax, Dorf Ketal, and Danaher Corporation / ChemTreat etc.

It is interesting that companies that account for higher market share than their peers have not been able to fare good and rank among ‘Victors’. Principal Consultant, Chemicals and Materials at FMI, Mr. Essien Jae offer his opinion on this market scenario. Mr. Jae opines that various factors such as “speed to market, response time to cater the request, capacity utilization rate, management leadership, along with strategic priority alignment with water and wastewater treatment chemicals, limit the performance of such companies, and despite being dominant, those companies are less likely to exhibit the best performance over the coming years.”

Merger and acquisition is a norm, rather than an exception, in the global water & wastewater treatment chemicals market. Notable developments include Lanxess’ whooping US$ 3 Bn acquisition of Chemtura and following consolidation of Berwind Corporation, Suez acquiring GE Water and Process Technologies, Danaher’s ChemTreat subsidiary acquiring Lipesa Colombia, Japanese conglomerate Kurita’s acquisition of Fremont Industries, and BASF joining forces with Solenis. According to Mr. Jae, the signs are clear -- companies need to measure their position in the market reassess potential or need to get out of the business, as Titan companies in FMI’s Market Edge Matrix are aggressively addressing market needs.

Global water and wastewater treatment chemical market was valued at less than US$ 25 Bn in 2014; by 2019, the market is likely to surpass US$ 30 Bn in revenues. The growth of the market over the next five year is also impressive and projected to grow at a CAGR of over 4% in a likely market scenario.

Water & wastewater treatment chemicals finds application not only in STPs (Sewage Treatment Plants) and ETPs (Effluent Treatment Plants), but nearly three-fourth of global demand has been reported from process water treatment. Industry such as oil & gas, power, mining, pulp & paper, pharmaceutical, food & beverages and chemicals processing treat process water with chemicals to prevent capital equipment from the risk of corrosion and scaling. “Oil & gas, power and mining industries collectively contributed close to 40% to the global water & wastewater treatment chemicals market revenue in 2018, and most active companies have dedicated product offering for these applications”, said Mr. Sudip Saha, Practice Head for Market at Edge at FMI.

About Market Edge by FMI:

Market Edge is a four-dimensional matrix developed by FMI, which takes 15 parameters into consideration and classifies each parameter into three strategic indices i.e. Growth Lever Score Index, Portfolio Lever Score Index and Operational Efficiency Lever Index. Over 50 companies across the globe engaged in water & Wastewater Treatment Chemicals production has been evaluated and benchmarked on 15 pre-defined attributes. A cumulative score of each company has been clubbed with the respective Market Share Index and a detailed matrix is developed.