Ammonium Chloride Market

Ammonium Chloride Market to Witness Steady Growth, as China Dominates 70% of Global Exports

Ammonium chloride market is partially fragmented, with majority of the world’s production highly concentrated in China, which accounts for nearly 70% of global exports.

• Ammonium chloride is a widely used fertilizer in paddy cultivation. Being a nitrogenous fertilizer, its demand will intensify with higher growth in rice cultivation globally.
• Demand for pharma grade ammonium chloride is anticipated to grow in sync with the demand for OTC cold & cough medicines. Besides, ammonium chloride is also used in animal medication to prevent the formation of stones in the kidneys and bladder of grazing animals.
• Likewise, a number of industrial applications like leather tanning, textiles printing, metal flux, cosmetics & personal care have been identified as niche applications of ammonium chloride and are expected to witness steady growth during the forecast period.
• Ammonium chloride-based zinc-carbon batteries have been phasing out due to the presence of other alkaline batteries which show better performance than zinc-carbon batteries. This could restrain the market in the long-term forecast.
• In addition, with the increasing penetration of ammonium chloride as a food additive, food-grade ammonium chloride is expected to gain traction in the mid-term forecast.
• This trend has been observed primarily in Western Europe where ammonium chloride is being used as an alternative to common salt and as an additive in bread making. Further, this trend is anticipated to shift to other regions especially North America. On the backdrop of the aforementioned factors, the global ammonium chloride market is expected to witness moderate growth of 4.0% CAGR over the forecast period of 2019-2029.

Prices of ammonium chloride have been stable over the past five years in various regions. As per Fact.MR estimates, the price of ammonium chloride is expected to have minimal fluctuation over the forecast period.

Furthermore, overcapacity and Chinese trade dependency will govern the ammonium chloride prices over the assessment period.

Cost-effective Manufacturing Giving Tailwind to China Ammonium Chloride Market

China has been a lucrative market for ammonium chloride and is set to maintain its dominance throughout the forecast period.

The country’s ammonium chloride production capacity is estimated to be around 17,000 KT, which accounts for over 90% of global ammonium chloride capacity.

Ammonium Chloride is predominantly manufactured using the Hou’s process in China and other Asian countries. The Hou’s process is also known as modified Solvay process. Hou’s process yields Ammonium chloride along with soda ash as a by-product, which has higher price value than that of the traditional Solvay process.

Thus manufacturers of ammonium chloride using Hou’s process have gained a competitive advantage over other players using the conventional Solvay process. Currently, China has an overcapacity of both ammonium chloride and soda ash.

China has witnessed a number of capacity expansions with domestic manufacturers entering the market.

The market in China also has the presence of global manufacturers that have joint-venture manufacturing facilities in the country. The extent of capacity increase in the country has been higher than that of the domestic demand which is escalating the rate of overspill into exports.

Majority of production is consumed locally and as per fact.MR estimates, the country exports 5-10% of its total ammonium chloride to other countries.

• The global supply of ammonium chloride has been concentrated in selected countries such as China, India, and Germany. Prominent players with established market presence in global ammonium chloride market include Haohua Junhua Group Co Ltd, Hangzhou Jingang Chemical CO., LTD., Dahua Group Dalian Chemical Co., Ltd., Tuticorin Alkali Chemicals & Fertilisers Ltd., BASF SE, and Zaclon LLC.
• Manufacturers are trying to reinforce their position in the market by providing cost-effective solutions. Global Ammonium chloride market is dominated by Chinese suppliers, of which the top five companies account for around 17% share of the global supply.
• China remains the largest exporter of ammonium chloride, accounting for around 70% of the global exports. With such large export quantities and import dependency, the on-going trade wars and geopolitics can have a huge impact on the global ammonium chloride market.
• MEA and Latin America have limited ammonium chloride production for which these regions remain to be the major importers of ammonium chloride.

Ammonium Chloride Market Segmentation

Fact.MR has studied the ammonium chloride market with detailed segmentation on the basis of grade, application and key regions.

Grade	Fertilizer Pharma Battery / Industrial Food Metal Works
Application	Agrochemical Medical / Pharmaceutical Food Additives Leather & Textiles Batteries Middle East & Africa Others
Region	North America Latin America Europe East Asia South Asia & Oceania