Market Challenges And Opportunities
One of the restraints could be the availability of substitute products. Products such as calcium chloride and calcium nitrate can be used in similar applications as calcium formate. This may limit the demand growth of calcium formate to some extent.
Calcium Formate Market Drivers:
- Calcium Formate as an Animal Feed Preservative: Calcium formate finds widespread application as an animal feed preservative across various regions globally. As an efficient feed preservative, it helps extend the shelf-life of compounded animal feed and prevents deterioration caused by mold and other microbes. With the rising demands for meat and dairy products, animal agriculture has significantly expanded in recent years. This has necessitated effective preservation of compounded cattle feed over a longer duration. Calcium formate effectively controls the growth of various spoilage microorganisms in animal feed due to its antimicrobial properties. It reduces the moisture content in feed through moisture absorption, depriving microbes of the suitable environment needed for proliferation. Its preservative action retains the palatability, nutritive value, and freshness of feed over longer storage periods. This ensures continuous feed intake by livestock, promoting better health and performance. It preserves vitamins, proteins and minerals in feed from damage during storage and transport. The ability of calcium formate to prevent quality deterioration of feed over time saves considerable wastage and reduces procurement frequency and logistic costs for farmers. With rising animal husbandry, compounded feed production has increased manifold in recent decades. However, distribution and supply chain networks for feed are often located at distant locations from farms. This requires feed to be stored for longer periods before use. Calcium formate effectively addresses the preservation needs of such supply chains. Its use helps feed producers and farmers ensure continuous and consistent supply of high quality feed throughout the year. This supports sustainable and large scale meat and dairy production globally. For Instances, According to data from the U.S. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), nearly 8% of global animal feed is lost or wasted annually, primarily due to a lack of proper preservation methods.
- Dry Calcium Formate Application in Cement Industry: Cement industry is a major end-use sector driving the demand for calcium formate. As a popular drying agent, calcium formate finds widespread application in controlling moisture in cement during manufacturing and packaging processes. The presence of moisture or water in cement is undesirable as it can impair cement's strength and setting properties over time. In the cement production process, calcium formate is introduced just before cement packaging. As a highly efficient and non-corrosive drying agent, it absorbs free moisture from the cement surface and prevents the reunification of hydrates back into the final product. This ensures cement remains dry during storage and transportation, retaining its cohesive properties and ability to achieve proper setting and hardening. Even marginal moisture absorption can impair the performance of cement drastically. Calcium formate allows cement plants to produce and ship top-quality, consistently dry cement nationwide and overseas. This has become critical for cement brands to maintain high performance standards and reputations. Its use helps boost plant output and reduce rejections arising from moisture related issues. It supports just-in-time manufacturing and supply systems of the industry. Cement producers find calcium formate favorable compared to alternatives as it is easy to handle and does not interfere with cement chemistry or leave unwanted residues. Owing to massive infrastructure development worldwide, cement demand is witnessing strong growth. This has put pressure on cement players to ramp up dry output consistently to meet construction schedules. Calcium formate effectively addresses the moisture control needs of large-volume plants. It plays a key role in enabling uninterrupted cement supply to major development projects globally. This drives its increasing consumption patterns in the long run. For instance, the World Bank also predicts that global investments in infrastructure will need to increase by around US$ 15 trillion by 2040 to match projected demand.
Calcium Formate Market Opportunities:
- Emerging applications in textile dyeing and printing: Emerging applications in textile dyeing and printing using calcium formate provide a great opportunity to drive growth in the calcium formate market. Calcium formate is an important mordant (fixative) used for improving dye uptake and fastness properties in textile dyeing. It helps in the better absorption of dyestuffs into fabric fibers and provides brighter, longer lasting and wash-fast colors. With the global textile industry evolving towards more sustainable and eco-friendly dyeing practices, calcium formate has emerged as a viable bio-based alternative to traditional heavy metal-based mordants like chromium and aluminum salts. Calcium formate provides significant benefits over other traditional mordants as it does not contain any toxic heavy metals. It improves the overall texture and feel of dyed fabrics, along with ensuring colors remain vibrant even after several washes. This has led to a growing acceptance of calcium formate among textile manufacturers. For instance, as per data from Textile Dye Manufacturers Association, India, 2021, Dye manufacturers in India, one of the largest textile exporters, have begun adopting calcium formate on a larger scale for dyeing cotton and polyester blend materials meant for apparel, home textiles, and technical textiles export markets.
- Increasing Research and development (R&D) activities: Calcium formate has wide applications across various industries like construction, animal feed, cement, and others. With growing application areas and demand, investing in R&D can help explore new uses of calcium formate and drive more innovation. Several countries have recognized this and are supporting R&D activities. R&D allows companies to discover new methods of producing calcium formate more efficiently and sustainably. This can reduce production costs in the long run and make calcium formate more affordable for its growing end use industries. Moreover, R&D makes it possible to create new calcium formate grades suitable for diverse applications. For instance, according to The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data from 2022, countries like Germany spent 3.1% of its GDP on R&D in 2020, higher than most other developed nations.
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