Silicones

Global Silicones Market Analysis and Global Outlook

MARKET OVERVIEW

Global Production: 2.96 MMT (2022E)

Global Demand: 2.51 MMT (2022E)

Global Demand CAGR: 3.5-4.5 percent (2023–2025F)

• Silicone supply has been tight last year, owing to feedstock siloxane monomer and OH polymer shortage. Supply continued to be extremely short in H1 2022, while it is expected to ease during end 2022-early 2023, owing to planned capacity additions

Silicones Demand Market Outlook

• Increasing demand of silicones for polyurethane-based product manufacturing in the construction and automotive sectors especially in developing regions like China, India, LATAM, etc., and also due to rising infrastructural growth and increasing auto sales is expected to drive the demand for silicones in the upcoming years

• Demand from the US and Europe is expected to grow from the healthcare and medical applications and lightweight silicone applications in transportation and renewable energy sectors in the future

Industry Best Practice : Silicones

Engagement models

• Buyers in North America prefer contract pricing, as they are engaged in domestic sourcing of silicones. While it is partly spot and partly contract in Europe, spot pricing is the buyers’ preference in APAC

Contract structures

Fixed Contract

• Length of contract: One year on average

• Volume in contract: >1,000 MT/year

Multi Year Contract

• Length of contract: 2–3 years (to establish long-term relationship in a highly matured market)

CPG Buyers' Preference

• CPG suppliers opt for domestic sourcing of silicones for their small volume procurement. Large volume buyers prefer engaging with global suppliers based out of the US or Europe owing to their surplus domestic capacities

Global Market Size-Silicones

• There was a drop in growth rate in due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which impacted downstream demand. However, downstream demand from construction and automotive has picked up last year and will continue to be high during 2022.

Industry Drivers and Constraints : Silicones

Drivers

• Rising demand from emerging downstream industries: The major drivers of the silicone industry will be the rising demand from personal care, health care, renewable energy, etc. The demand for Liquid Silicone Rubber (LSR) is growing at a rapid CAGR, and it is slowly replacing High Consistency Rubber (HCR) in few conventional downstream applications

• Owing to the stringent regulatory environment for cyclic siloxanes, the demand for 0.65 and 1 cSt silicone fluid, which offers similar characteristic properties as the cyclics is expected to rise

• The use of silicones as carriers of medical marijuana and cannabis oil for transdermal patches is one of the major innovations in the healthcare space, which is expected to drive the demand for the next few years

• One of the emerging downstream applications is in the use of sporting products, such as golf club handles, snow skiing poles, tennis racquets, sports helmets, and swimming goggles. The sporting goods sector is expected to witness highest growth rates (10–15 percent) among all end uses

Constraints

• Threat for cyclic siloxanes (D4, D5): There have been no issues or concerns raised on linear/straight chained silicones. All the various studies have examined the potential toxicity of cyclic silicones, which has eventually led to the elimination of D4 used individually from cosmetic formulations. Based on further studies, Europe has further restricted the use of D4 and D5 to <=0.1 percent in wash-off personal care products. The silicones industry is slowly shifting toward cyclic-free products, especially in Europe.

Why You Should Buy This Report

This silicone market report gives information about the global and regional market outlook, market size, supply-trend analysis, trade dynamics and export-import trends. It gives a broad overview of the north America silicones market, Europe silicone market, etc. and does Porter’s five force analysis for these regions. The report lists out the industry drivers and constraints, innovations, major events, etc. It does a cost structure analysis and gives insight into silicone market-based price. The report gives the global and regional capacity share of suppliers and does SWOT analysis of key players like Dow DuPont, Momentive, Wacker, etc.