Due to the surging population levels and the soaring consumer spending, the sales of specialty chemicals are rising sharply in Asia-Pacific (APAC). The increasing population of middle-class people, the growing disposable income of people, rapid industrialization, and the expansion of the manufacturing sector are creating huge requirement for specialty chemicals in this region. Besides this, the launch of several infrastructural development projects is also pushing up the sales of specialty chemicals in the APAC region.

These infrastructure projects include the construction of residential and commercial buildings, schools, hospitals, malls, warehouses, shopping complexes, highways, railroads, roads, and manufacturing facilities. Specialty chemicals are heavily used in the construction industry in the form of pigments, resins, coatings, surfactants, paints, additives, varnishes, and adhesives and sealants. Because of this reason, the growth in the construction industry is positively impacting the demand for specialty chemicals all over the APAC region.

This is driving the advancement of the Asia-Pacific (APAC) specialty chemicals market. Specialty chemicals or performance chemicals, as they are sometimes called, are extensively used in the manufacturing processes of several products. They are low-volume chemical items that add significantly high value to various products. These chemicals are mainly used as ingredients in manufacturing processes and can also be used to produce a diverse range or products such as electronics goods, petroleum products, paints, and detergents. 

Construction chemicals, surfactants, polymer additives, specialty coatings, agrochemicals, food additives, cleaning chemicals, electronic chemicals, paper and textile chemicals, plastic additives, lubricants and oilfield chemicals, water treatment chemicals, advanced ceramic materials, mining chemicals, rubber processing chemicals, and adhesives and sealants are the most widely used types of specialty chemicals in the APAC region. Out of these, the sales of agrochemicals were found to be the highest during the past few years.

This was because of the huge requirement for crop protection chemicals, the large-scale adoption of chemicals and advanced technologies that increase the production of crops, and the huge requirement for diversified food products in the region. According to the findings of P&S Intelligence, a market research company based in India, the APAC specialty chemicals market recorded the highest growth in China in the past years. This was due to the huge requirement for commercial and residential buildings in the country.

In the coming years, the sales of specialty chemicals will rise enormously in India. This will be because of the rising urbanization, the surging disposable income, and the growing requirement for enhanced aesthetics in various residential buildings in the country. Specialty chemicals are extensively used in several industries such as automotive, food and beverage (F&B), electronics, personal care, and construction. One of the major trends currently being witnessed in the industry is the shifting of production bases to APAC.

Hence, it can be said with full surety that the demand for specialty chemicals will soar in the APAC region in the upcoming years, mainly because of their ballooning usage in the construction and infrastructural development activities and automotive, personal care, and electronics industries.