Surfactants: Production
Why consumer giants make their own cleaning molecules
What this tab covers Who makes it and how much: world capacity and output, utilisation, the top producing countries and companies globally and in India, concentration, new capacity coming, and each region's position.| Measure | Figure | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| World capacity | not published globally | no public capacity total | |
| World output | about 17-20 Mt excluding soap (indicative) | derived from lab and ethylene_oxide tiles | |
| Capacity utilisation | not published | Sulphonation and ethoxylation capacity is generally ample; constraints come from feedstocks (LAB in India, fatty alcohol, EO). Galaxy guided 6-8% volume growth but volumes were flat in FY26. | Galaxy Surfactants Q3 FY26 call; Construction World May 2026 |
| Concentration | fragmented: no top-5 share published | Large captive producers (Unilever, P&G, Henkel, Kao) sit alongside merchant suppliers (BASF, Dow, Nouryon, Clariant, Stepan, Sasol, Croda, Galaxy). | indicative |
| New capacity | LAB: TPL +25 kt (2026), IOC +20 kt (lab tile); new fatty alcohol plants referenced by Galaxy management | Biosurfactant scale-up in Europe (rhamnolipids, sophorolipids) is small (indicative). | lab tile; Galaxy Q3 FY26 call |
Top producing countries
- China: largest producer and consumer (indicative); Asia-Pacific is more than a third of the market
- United States: Stepan, Dow, P&G captive (indicative)
- Western Europe: BASF, Clariant, Croda, Evonik, Sasol (Germany, Italy) (indicative)
- India: LAB 550 kt capacity (2020); net LAS exporter; Galaxy, Aarti Surfactants, Godrej, India Glycols
- Indonesia and Malaysia: oleochemical base for fatty alcohols and MES from palm kernel oil
- Philippines: coconut-based fatty alcohols and CAPB feed (Philippines 38.8% of coconut oil)
Largest producers: global
| Company | Country | Volume | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BASF (Care Chemicals) broad anionic, non-ionic and glucoside range (indicative) | Germany | not published | 2025 | not published in sources reached |
| Dow integrated EO and ethoxylates (indicative) | US | not published | 2025 | not published in sources reached |
| Stepan largest merchant anionic sulphonator (indicative) | US | not published | 2025 | not published in sources reached |
| Sasol Ziegler and Fischer-Tropsch alcohols, LAB (lab tile) | South Africa | not published | 2025 | not published in sources reached |
| Clariant ethoxylates and specialty surfactants (indicative) | Switzerland | not published | 2025 | not published in sources reached |
| Kao oleochemical fatty alcohols and surfactants (indicative) | Japan | not published | 2025 | not published in sources reached |
| Galaxy Surfactants performance surfactants Rs 33,408 mn; specialty care Rs 19,296 mn | India | 52,704 Rs million revenue | FY2026 | Construction World, 18 May 2026 |
Largest producers: India
| Company | Country | Volume | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Galaxy Surfactants tonnage not disclosed; derived | India | 255 kt sold (derived: Rs 4,974 mn EBITDA / about Rs 19,500 per t) | FY2026 | Construction World May 2026; Galaxy Q3 FY26 transcript (EBITDA per t) |
| Aarti Surfactants SLES, CAPB and personal-care surfactants; demerged from Aarti Industries (indicative) | India | not published | 2026 | not retrieved |
| Godrej Industries (Chemicals) fatty alcohols and surfactants (indicative) | India | not published | 2026 | not retrieved |
| India Glycols bio-based EO and ethoxylates from molasses ethanol (indicative) | India | not published | 2026 | not retrieved |
| Reliance Industries, IOC, Tamilnadu Petroproducts, Nirma LAB feed for LAS; Nirma and HUL sulphonate captively (indicative) | India | 550 kt/yr LAB capacity (four producers, 2020) | 2020 | lab tile (Chemical Week Jan 2023) |
India imported 44% of its LAB in 2020 but is a net exporter of LAS. Galaxy Surfactants supplies global personal-care brands from India, Egypt and the US; its India volumes grew low single digits in FY26. Fatty alcohols rely on imported palm kernel and coconut oil, though India grows about 31% of the world's coconuts (coconut tile).
Position by region
| Region | Position |
|---|---|
| US | Large merchant producers (Stepan, Dow); tariffs on Indian exports cut from 50% to 18% in early 2026. |
| EU | Detergents Regulation biodegradability rules; EU-India FTA expected to remove 4-6% duties on Indian surfactants. |
| India | Net LAS exporter but LAB importer; Galaxy a global specialty supplier; palm and coconut oil imports. |
| China | Largest market; integrated EO and LAB capacity. |
| Japan | Kao and Lion; oleochemical-based. |
| Middle East | LAB exporter (Farabi, Qatar, Iran) and growing detergent demand; the Egyptian pound weakened from about 15-16 to about 45 per dollar, hurting AMET volumes (Galaxy Q3 FY26 call). |