Continued depreciation in economic fundamentals, lower discretionary spends, rising levels of unemployment, and energy prices among others have resulted in adversely impacting demand for textiles and apparel. As the textile chemicals market is highly raw material intensive, pricing pressure remains a key challenge as producers continue to struggle with overcapacity and diminishing operating margins.

Currently, majority of textile export houses and commercial dyers are looking for widespread adoption of natural and eco-friendly dyes for printing and coloring textiles to target niche markets. The new eco-dyes are designed to overcome the drawbacks of traditional dyes such as toxicity, environmental hazards and high energy consumption. The industry is likely to witness significant growth in production of high-performance organic pigments and natural dyes amid growing preference for effective and eco-friendly dyes among consumers and fashion aficionados.

Increasing environmental pressure is further prompting players to scale up R&D spending for production of eco-friendly natural and sustainable “green” materials. Further, growing concerns over water pollution and diminishing water resources is driving the industry to focus on development of new technologies that eliminate use of water to a large extent. Technological advancements such as Ultrasonic Technology, Waterless dyeing technology, Plasma and Electrochemical dyeing processes are few such techniques garnering interest off late to minimize water usage during the pretreatment and finishing processes.

As stated by the new market research report on Textile Dyes, Asia Pacific represents the largest market worldwide. Over the past decade, the dye industry has witnessed a significant change in production landscape with the rampant exodus of production units from high-cost bases to low-cost Asian countries. Actively supported by the government with a host of measures such as subsidies and lower labor and environmental costs, Asian producers play an increasingly important role in the global market. Manufacturers are also increasingly focusing on forming partnerships with equipment manufacturers for providing new color solutions.

China is the global leader in terms of manufacture and consumption of dyeing and printing chemicals. The country’s textile chemical industry continues to remain dynamic in light of widespread opportunities as well as new challenges due to the prevailing intense competition. India, being one of the leading producers of synthetic dyestuffs and a range of dye intermediates and natural dyestuffs, continues to remain a key market. Reactive Dyes form the largest product market, while Sulfur Dyes is projected to grow the fastest over the analysis period.

Key players covered in the report include Allied Industrial Corp., Atul Ltd., Clariant AG, Day-Glo Color Corp., Eurodye CTC, Huntsman Corporation, Kiri Industries Limited, Organic Dyestuffs Corporation, and Yorkshire Group, among others.

Global Industry Analysts