US demand for antimicrobials to reach $1.2bn by 2013

Demand for disinfectant and antimicrobial chemicals is projected to increase by 3.6% annually to US$1.2bn by 2013, according to a study from the Freedonia Group. Although this represents a substantial deceleration in value from 2003-2008, growth in volume will accelerate due to rebounding production levels in key industrial markets such as coatings and plastics.

The strong increase in value in the previous five-year period was mainly due to price increases in the three years from 2005 to 2008, when the price of crude oil and other raw materials soared.

The study, Disinfectant & Antimicrobial Chemicals, also expects demand for disinfectant chemicals in industrial, institutional and commercial, and consumer markets to grow, despite considerable scientific disagreement about the necessity for using disinfectant chemicals in many of their current applications.

Gains in the consumer market – the fastest-growing overall – will be driven by fears of food-borne and other pathogens, as disinfectant active ingredients are being added to many traditional cleaning products that have not typically contained such ingredients.

In the healthcare market, there is broad agreement that aggressive infection control programmes are necessary. As a result, it will remain one of the largest outlets for these products.

Use of these chemicals in antimicrobial additive applications, such as in paints, plastics or textile products, is less controversial, the report says. These applications are less likely to create an environment that could lead to the formation of resistant strains of bacteria, and the chemicals are used to prolong the functional lives of these products. However, there are environmental concerns about some of these additives.

Organosulfurs will be the fastest-growing product category, due mainly to developments in the paint and coatings industry, the largest user of these products. They are also likely to be the leading replacement for tributyl tin (TBT) in the marine antifoulant segment.

Overall, phenolic compounds will remain the largest product category. Phenolics are one of the few product categories that are used extensively as both disinfectant actives (eg ortho-phenylphenol in hard surface cleaners) and antimicrobial additives (eg triclosan in plastic products and textiles). www.freedoniagroup.com