Antimony Market Gaining Traction from Thriving Electronics and Consumer Goods Industries

Antimony Market: Demand Analysis and Growth Forecast

Antimony is a chemical metalloid represented by the symbol Sb and derived from sulfide mineral stibnite. This chemical is one of the oldest known minerals to mankind. Antimony is found in very less amount in its elemental form with most of it extracted from ores, stibnite, and Valentine. Antimony is known for its high stability and recyclable property, which makes this chemical a distinctly favored entity across several market domains.

The antimony market is riding high on its applications in prospering industries in both developed and developing countries such as electronics, textile, consumer goods, and fiberglass composites. To fulfill the demands of these end-user industries, the market for antimony is expected to progress substantially during the forecast period of 2018 to 2023, as projected by a recent Industry ARC market research report. The analyst of the report rates Asia-Pacific as the most lucrative region among all.

Antimony Market: Key Drivers and Disruptive Trends

Increasing demands for antimony trioxide in the production of flame retardant products, which are used to manufacture consumer electronics, household goods, and clothing has contributed to the exponential growth of this market. The recent surge in the demand for miniature electronic products such as mobile phones, tablets, and smartwatches has boosted the demands of the flame retardants, which, in turn, is reflecting positively over the antimony market.

Antimony has a wide range of applications in the fiberglass composites market too. Because of the high strength and durability of fiberglass composites, these are heavily used in the automobile and the aerospace industry for structural applications. The globally increasing demands of the automobile and the aerospace industry are further fueling the antimony market. Additionally, chemical antimony can be utilized more than once. After the processing and recycling of the waste end-user products, the recycled antimony can be reused for some other application. This opens a great era of opportunity for chemical companies to explore new revenue avenues.   

Antimony Market: Leading Segments

Application-wise the antimony market can be segmented into flames, retardants, plastic additives, lead-acid batteries, glass, and ceramics. By product type, this market can be bifurcated into trioxides and alloys. In accordance with the end-use industries, this market can be divided into chemical, automotive, electrical, and aerospace industries. Geographically, the Industry ARC report gauges the demand potential of all important regions including North America, Asia-Pacific, South America, and Europe. The majority of global antimony reserves and production is in China, resulting in ample availability. Consequently, the country is anticipated to remain the leading producer as well as major consumer of antimony in the best part of the next decade.

Antimony Market: Competitive Landscape

Some of the key players active in the antimony market are Qingdao Glory International Trading Co, Hunan Gold Group, Hsikwang Shan Twinking Star, Dongfeng, China Tin Group, Consolidated Murchison, Beijing North Xinyuan Electrical Carbon Products Co. Ltd, and Shanghai Metal Corporation. These companies are focusing on expanding their business using strategic acquisitions and partnerships with multiple end-user industries to substantially expand their profit. For example, the Netherland’s company AMG (Advance Metallurgic Group) recently announced that it has signed a multi-year agreement with one of its existing customers to recycle and process the used antimony from a major refinery in North America.

Conclusion:

The antimony metalloid is a highly accepted chemical across industries. The attribute that this chemical is recyclable makes it one of the most accepted chemical in the industry. Antimony finds a number of applications in the form of flame retardants, plastic additives, and fiberglass composites. The Asia Pacific region, precisely China, is expected to show the highest potential during the aforementioned forecasted period. Foreseeing the global demands of end-user products in electronics, automobile, and aerospace industries, the antimony market is projected towards a vigorous growth.