As an important component of lubricating oil, additives are the key components to improve the performance of lubricating oil. With the change of industrial structure, the demand structure of lubricating oil additives has also changed. Dispersants, viscosity index improvers and detergents have become more functional additives. The market situation of lubricating oil additives is analyzed and summarized from the consumption of additives, market scale, function distribution, market share and manufacturers.
Impacted by the COVID-19, the global consumption of lubricating oil additives decreased by 0.3 MT to 4.35 MT in 2020, and the market size decreased by $700 million to $14.4 billion. With the shift of the global lubricating oil center to the Asia Pacific region, the actual consumption of lubricating oil additives has entered a new round of growth cycle. It is estimated that the global consumption of lubricating oil additives will increase to 5.70 MT by 2025, and the market size will be about 19.5 billion US dollars.
Lubricating oil additive is a functional component added to the lubricating medium to improve the function of the lubricating medium, impart new characteristics to the lubricating medium, extend the service life of the lubricating medium, and improve the performance of the lubricating medium. The mass proportion of lubricating oil additives in lubricating oil is between 2.0% and 30% (usually, the dosage of hydraulic oil is less, but the dosage of heavy-duty engine lubricating oil is more). It has a wide range of applications and can be generally divided into single agent and compound agent.
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Main classification of lubricating oil additives
Single agent mainly includes detergent, dispersant, viscosity index improver, etc; The composite agent is generally composed of a variety of single agents in a certain proportion and has a variety of characteristics. It can significantly improve the performance of internal combustion engine oil, gear oil and hydraulic oil and reduce the total amount of additives. It provides a comprehensive solution for the preparation of internal combustion engine oil, gear oil and hydraulic oil.
The development of lubricant additives can be divided into two stages: improving the functionality and economy of additives.
From 1930s to the end of 1990s, the development of lubricating oil additives mainly focused on improving the performance of lubricating media, and gradually developed from single agent to compound agent; Since the beginning of the 21st century, the development of lubricating oil additives mainly focuses on energy saving and emission reduction and improving fuel economy.
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1、 Global additive consumption and market scale
Since the 1930s, the global lubricant additive industry has gradually developed to a relatively mature stage, with a large market scale and basically stable growth.
According to the market operation pattern and investment risk assessment report of China's lubricating oil additive industry from 2021 to 2027 released by Zhiyan consulting, the global consumption of lubricating oil additives in 2013 was 4.10 MT (4.1 million tons), and the market scale was US $15.6 billion.
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Global lubricant additive consumption and market size
Due to the impact of COVID-19, the global production and sales of lubricating oil additives both declined in 2020. The consumption decreased by 0.3 MT (300000 tons) to 4.35 MT (4.35 million tons), and the market size also decreased by US $700 million to US $14.4 billion.
However, considering the rapid growth of emerging economies such as India and Brazil and the impact of the Federal Reserve's stop of scale reduction on the global economy, the actual annual consumption of lubricating oil additives will enter a new growth cycle. It is estimated that the global consumption of lubricating oil additives will increase to 5.70 MT (5.7 million tons) by 2025, with a market size of about 19.5 billion US dollars.
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Global lubricant additive consumption and market size forecast
2、 Global additive function distribution and Application
Dispersant, viscosity index improver and detergent are the three most commonly used functional additives, accounting for about 70% of the total consumption of lubricating oil additives. Among the other additives, antiwear agents account for about 7%, antioxidants for about 5%, friction modifiers for about 4%, emulsifiers for about 3%, and other additives for about 11% of the total consumption.
According to the main application fields, about 70% of global lubricant additives are used in the field of motor vehicles (mainly passenger car engine lubricants, heavy-duty engine lubricants and other automotive lubricants); The second is metalworking fluid and industrial engine lubricating oil, with the same amount of additives; And a small part is used for general industrial lubricants and greases.
PCMO (passenger car engine lubricating oil) and hdmo (heavy load engine lubricating oil) account for about 46% of the global lubricant consumption, while the lubricant additives used for PCMO and hdmo account for 60% of the global lubricant additive consumption. It is precisely these two types of lubricants that consume more additives.
Global distribution of lubricant additives
3、 Application and distribution of additives in lubricants worldwide
According to the growth rate of consumption of various lubricating oil additives, the top three annual growth rates from 2016 to 2018 are antioxidant 5.2%, dispersant 3.1%, and viscosity index improver 2.5%. The reason for the rapid growth of these three additives is that they are mainly used in passenger car engine oil and heavy load engine oil with large consumption and rapid growth.
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Regional distribution and trend of global additives
From the perspective of the global regional distribution, the development of the lubricating oil market and the changes in consumption always show different characteristics with the maturity of the regional markets and the different stages of economic development. The consumption of lubricating oil in economically developed regions is much higher than that in economically backward regions.
Historically, North America and Europe used to be the main producers and consumers of lubricating oil. However, in recent years, the production capacity and development focus of the global lubricating oil industry are shifting to the Asia Pacific region represented by China and India. The developing countries represented by China and India are becoming the regions with the fastest growth in global lubricating oil consumption, accounting for about 44% of the global market share.
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Regional distribution of global additives
In the international market, after fierce mergers and acquisitions among lubricant additive companies in the late 1990s, the industry gradually concentrated, forming a market competition pattern dominated by four internationally famous lubricant additive companies, including Lubrizol, Infineum, Chevron oronite and Afton.
These four additive companies have a long history of development, have a deep accumulation in technology research and development and market expansion, control about 85% of the global additive market share, and mainly sell composite agents. The single agents they produce are generally for their own use, and they also purchase the single agents they do not produce or have insufficient capacity from outside.
According to relevant data, in the global additive market share, Lubrizol accounts for 34%, Infineum for about 23.5% and Chevron oronite for about 18%; Afton company accounts for about 9.5%; Chemtura accounts for about 6.0% and other companies account for 9%.
In addition to the four major additive professional companies, there are also several small-scale but characteristic additive companies, such as Chemtura, BASF, Vanderbilt and Rohmax. These additive companies have global leading R & D strength in their respective fields and occupy a certain market share with their unique products.
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