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*18^th Biennial Edition*

“Intelligence Report: Business Shifts in the Global Catalytic Process Industries, 2019-2025”

Unprecedented Times Require Unparalleled Assessment of Industry Opportunities and Challenges…
There is no better time; there is no better resource: TCGR’s “Intelligence Report – 2020”!

The Catalyst Group Resources (TCGR) is pleased to announce the completion of the 18^th biennial edition of The Intelligence Report: Business Shifts in the Global Catalytic Process Industries, 2019-2025. TCGR’s report provides competitive insight and analysis vital to catalyst manufacturers, process licensors, and end-users across the value chain: refining, petrochemical/chemical, polymer, specialty/fine chemical and environmental markets.

Industry executives, business development managers and R&D scientists will all need to display a steady hand over the next year, as we navigate the impacts of COVID-19 coupled with the turmoil created by the OPEC+/Russia oil price war and regional trade/tariff disputes. It is a crucial time to seek opportunities that conserve current costs, to make adjustments that improve short term operational profitabilities, and to pursue investments that better position your business for the recovery.

Several features characterize our outlook: for the first time in decades, the chemicals/petrochemicals sector is set to lead growth, at 4.2%/yr through 2025. It outpaces the polymerization sector at 3.5%/yr and the refining sector at 3.1%/yr, with the environmental sector lagging at 1.4%/yr. Chemicals/petrochemicals benefit from the “oil-to-chemicals” movement while refining suffers from reduced transportation fuel demand. Polymers continue to grow in value-added roles (but less so in packaging, where recycling has an impact) and environmental is restricted by the penetration of EVs, among other factors. The global merchant catalyst market is forecast to grow from $33.2 BIL/yr in 2019 to reach $39.1 BIL/yr by 2025. If you were to include licensing and other direct services, the current market exceeds $40 BIL/yr.

In the last two years (2018-2020) since our previous edition of The Intelligence Report , catalyst producers and process technology licensors have been required to address the breadth and depth of change resulting from a variety of factors, with the most significant noted for the forecast period to 2025 as:

• The refining industry has been triply impacted by COVID-19. With workplace lockdowns, the demand for transportation fuels plunged and oil prices/margins contracted, further compounded by global automotive industry struggles in the shorter term. We forecast automobile sales will not reach 2018 levels again until 2022/23, softening demand for mobile autocatalysts as well as fuels (depending upon region).
• The chemicals industry will fare much better, although growth and demand in different segments will be uneven, driving refiners towards more chemicals/petrochemicals production. Bright spots will be syngas, as the demand for hydrogen will be very strong; others will be more spotty.
• Despite the surge in the interest of recycling of plastics in a circular economy, and robustly so in PET and styrenics, the solutions needed for mixed polyolefins that are economic (besides mechanical recycling) are more complicated and will take several years to be optimized. During the interim, plastics will continue to be a growth segment.
• The environmental stationary pollution control market will continue to grow globally. The dip in mobile automotive demand will impact catalyst demand, but tighter regulations will increase the demand for combined particulate filters (DPFs) which will offset some of the challenges.

As this biennial report has done in the past (and the “Exec Deck” slides do in coordination), this year’s study provides new business and technology perspectives, including:

• Comprehensive, concise and detailed industry statistics on catalyst volumes and values, including forecasts
• Producer- and user-specific developments in production and technology, including alliances, ventures and acquisitions/divestitures
• Identification of new growth opportunities across the value chain (raw materials, licensing, services, technology, etc.)
• Assessment of geographical, technological and competitive gaps
• Analysis and recommendations leading to specific actionable items

In order to add value/perspective(s) beyond industry statistics and commentary, the 2020 edition includes a Special Feature section (Section VII) addressing the impacts of  climate change on the catalytic process industries. These go beyond the catalysts themselves to include the breadth of products that they make, and the industry participants affected. What is the fate of liquid transportations fuels and the routes being used to make them, from established routes (via petroleum refining for gasoline/diesel/jet) to developing pathways which are non-CO₂ generating (e.g., electro/photo-catalytic H₂, other “energy carrier” chemicals, etc.)? Metrics including life-cycle analyses (LCAs) and technology readiness levels (TRLs) are utilized to assess future prospects and provide strategic/competitive guidance.  As usual, TCGR provides insights “for the industry by the industry” that are valuable enough to constitute, in effect, a report within a report.

Back by popular demand, TCGR is including an optional “Exec Deck” slide deck companion deliverable to complement the report contents and highlight the key findings.  The PPT slides provides additional subscriber-specific value such as:

• Executive-level coverage of critical statistical data, technical advances, market and competitive/strategic insights
• Actionable study recommendation and findings
• For presentation (via webinar or on-site) by TCGR’s team of experts or to generate internal documents for planning and/or strategy
• Subscriber-specific Q&A, yielding additional value-added insights/analyses

Full of opportunities and profit generating technologies as newly important directions and pursuits, TCGR’s 18^th biennial edition of The Intelligence Report serves clients within, but also beyond the traditional refining, petrochemical/chemicals, plastics, specialty chemicals, and environmental segments, to include alternative energy/feedstocks across applications – from fuels to energy storage and CO₂/GHG mitigation.  Participants will recognize TCGR’s biennial edition as a unique source of vision and clarity beyond the macro-views that limit other sources.

Based on TCGR’s unparalleled industry knowledge spanning nearly 40 years, we are uniquely qualified to document these advancements and assess their impacts on behalf of our clients – subscribe today!

For further information on this study, completed in May 2020, including the complete study presentation, the actual Table of Contents and the Order Form, please contact John J. Murphy at +1.215.628.4447 or John.J.Murphy@catalystgrp.com or download the presentation via the link below.

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The Catalyst Group Resources (TCGR), a member of The Catalyst Group, is dedicated to monitoring and analyzing technical and commercial developments in catalysis as they apply to the global refining, petrochemical, fine/specialty chemical, pharmaceutical, polymer/elastomer and environmental industries.