specialties or effect chemicals info Chemical Man

Speciality chemicals (also called specialties or effect chemicals) are particular chemical products which provide a wide variety of effects on which many other industry sectors rely. Some of the categories of speciality chemicals are adhesives, agrichemicals, cleaning materials, cosmetic additives, construction chemicals, elastomers, flavors, food additives, fragrances, industrial gases, lubricants, polymers, surfactants, and textile auxiliaries. Other industrial sectors such as automobile, aerospace, food, cosmetics, agriculture, manufacturing, textile industries are highly dependent on such products.

Speciality chemicals are materials used on the basis of their performance or function. Consequently, in addition to "effect" chemicals they are sometimes referred to as "performance" chemicals or "formulation" chemicals. They can be unique molecules or mixtures of molecules known as formulations. The physical and chemical characteristics of the single molecules or the formulated mixtures of molecules and the composition of the mixtures influences the performance end product. In commercial applications the companies providing these products more often than not provide targeted customer service to innovative individual technical solutions for their customers. This is a differentiating component of the service provided by speciality chemical producers when they are compared to the other sub-sectors of the chemical industry such as fine chemicals, commodity chemicals, petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals.

In the USA the speciality chemical manufacturers are members of the Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates (SOCMA). In the United Kingdom such companies are members of the British Association of Chemical Specialties (BACS). SOCMA state that “Specialty chemicals differ from commodity chemicals in that each one may have only one or two uses, while commodities may have dozens of different applications for each chemical. While commodity chemicals make up most of the production volume (by weight) in the global marketplace, specialty chemicals make up most of the diversity (number of different chemicals) in commerce at any given time.