The Surfactants Market

Coatings World: What do you think are the primary issues facing the surfactants market today?

Carsten Bauman, director, global marketing – emulsion polymerization surfactants, Cognis North America: One of the major issues in the surfactant markets today is dealing with heavily fluctuating raw material costs, e.g. crude oil or renewable oil prices. Another issue is the increasing customer interest in products that do not harm the environment, and the need for eco-friendly surfactant solutions that still deliver top performance. At the same time, the surfactant markets are very cost sensitive, meaning that the surfactant solutions should help customers control their total costs. This is especially true in sophisticated technical applications such as emulsion polymerization, where the surfactants play a key role for the final performance of the formulation. Customers realize that this can be achieved best by using high quality surfactants with a proven track record of consistent quality and supply chain reliability, which helps avoid the need for unnecessary process adjustments and delays.

Maur