Alternative Energy Demand Drives Global Potassium Hydroxide Market

IndexBox has just published a new report: 'World - Potassium Hydroxide (Caustic Potash) - Market Analysis, Forecast, Size, Trends And Insights'. Here is a summary of the report's key findings.

The potassium hydroxide market, buoyed by steady demand from soap and detergent, fertilizer, and potassium carbonate manufacturers, emerged from the pandemic without any significant losses. The market is set to expand further due to increasing demand from the hygiene product industry, electronic chemistry, and alternative fuels.

Key Trends and Insights

Despite the pandemic, the global potassium hydroxide market increased by 10% y-o-y and reached 5.1M tonnes in 2020 (IndexBox estimates). The booming soap and detergent industry became the main driver of the caustic potash market growth. New consumer hygienic behavior patterns, as well as requirements for disinfection of public places, should continue to boost soap and detergent production and keep afloat the potassium hydroxide market in the coming years. 

Fertilizer manufacture also features as one of the key downstream industries for potassium hydroxide, being also the industry feeling robust during the pandemic, as major crop production continues to grow. New areas are currently being involved in the production of soybeans, grains and other products; the less land remains available, the more prominent becomes the need for fertilizers. The demand from the fertilizer sector additionally stimulated the caustic potash market.

Potassium hydroxide is also could be used as a catalyst in biodiesel production. The demand for biodiesel is steadily increasing on the backdrop of increased environmental concerns and alternative energy. This, together with the solar energy sector, where caustic potash is also used to a certain extent, reveals new opportunities for the potassium hydroxide market.

Approximately 50% of global potassium hydroxide consumption originates from the Asia-Pacific region. India and China account for 35% of the global consumption and are followed by the U.S. (6.7%), Germany (4.7%), Brazil (4.4%) and other countries (49.2%). Over the next decade, rapidly growing consuming industries in Asia should become the major drivers of the market growth. 

Caustic Potash Production by Country

The country with the largest volume of potassium hydroxide production was China (1.3M tonnes), comprising approx. 26% of total volume. Moreover, potassium hydroxide production in China exceeded the figures recorded by the second-largest producer, India (504K tonnes), threefold. The U.S. (386K tonnes) ranked third in total production with a 7.8% share.

From 2012 to 2020, the average annual growth rate of volume in China stood at +3.3%. The remaining producing countries recorded the following average annual rates of production growth: India (+3.7% per year) and the U.S. (-5.0% per year).

Global Caustic Potash Imports

In 2020, after three years of growth, there was a significant decline in overseas purchases of potassium hydroxide (caustic potash), when their volume decreased by -7.7% to 1M tonnes. In value terms, potassium hydroxide imports dropped modestly to $725M in 2020. 

In 2020, Germany (141K tonnes), followed by France (90K tonnes), Belgium (71K tonnes), Malaysia (60K tonnes), Suriname (51K tonnes), Israel (50K tonnes) and the Netherlands (48K tonnes) represented the major importers of potassium hydroxide (caustic potash), together mixing up 49% of total imports. The following importers - Denmark (45K tonnes), Spain (44K tonnes), the U.S. (41K tonnes), the UK (38K tonnes), Russia (31K tonnes) and Italy (25K tonnes) - together made up 21% of total imports.

In value terms, Suriname ($80M), Germany ($70M) and Malaysia ($45M) appeared to be the countries with the highest levels of imports in 2020, together comprising 27% of global imports. Israel, France, the U.S., the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, Belgium, Russia, Denmark and Italy lagged somewhat behind, comprising a further 37%.

The average potassium hydroxide import price stood at $696 per tonne in 2020, surging by 4% against the previous year. There were significant differences in the average prices amongst the major importing countries. In 2020, the country with the highest price was Suriname ($1,564 per tonne), while Belgium ($317 per tonne) was amongst the lowest.

Source: IndexBox AI Platform