To most people, ‘salt’ simply means table salt, or sodium chloride. However, the word has a specific meaning in chemistry, hence denotes a wide array of compounds, almost all of them powders. In technical terms, any compound that has a cation (positively charged atom) bonded to an anion (negatively charged atom), such that the net charge of the molecule is 0, is a salt. In the simplest form, a salt can be produced by reacting an acid with a base (alkali).
According to P&S Intelligence, the inorganic salts market is expected to display a 6.5% CAGR during 2024–2030, to reach USD 290.8 billion by 2030 from an estimated USD 188.6 billion in 2023. Inorganic salts are those that do not contain a carbon–hydrogen bond. In fact, the majority of the industrially used salts are inorganic. They are used as raw materials, intermediates, and final products in a variety of applications, such as fertilizers, food and beverage products, construction chemicals, healthcare, cosmetics, and personal care and homecare products. Hence, due to such a wide application area of such compounds, their consumption keeps on growing.
Such chemicals can be classified both on the basis of their cation and anion. For instance, sodium chloride can be classified both as a sodium salt and a chloride salt. This makes the segregation of these compounds based on their application a little easier. For instance, phosphate salts, specifically diammonium phosphate and ammonium dihydrogen phosphate (also known as monoammonium phosphate), are majorly used in fertilizers. Similarly, silicate salts are widely consumed in the glass industry; silica being the major raw material that goes into the production of glass.
In the same way, titanium dioxide is a major component of paints and coatings as it gives them their white color. Hence, as construction activities burgeon around the world, the demand for paints and coatings will grow, which will drive the consumption of titanium dioxide. Another key material that is witnessing a booming demand with the growing construction sector is steel. It is used widely as a structural element in buildings, bridges, and towers. Its burgeoning consumption is propelling the demand for aluminum oxide, or alumina, which is used as a refractory, the bricks that line the furnaces.
Moreover, a large volume of inorganic salts isn’t used itself, but to extract their base mineral. Many important metals do not exist in the elemental stage, but as oxides and sulphides. For instance, iron exists as ferrous oxide and ferric oxide, while copper, which is also available in its native (elemental) state, is usually extracted from cuprite (cupric oxide) and chalcolite (copper [I] sulphide). Similarly, bauxite contains aluminum in the form of hydroxide salts. In the same way, calcium is usually mined from calcium carbonate (marble), while silver is found in the form of silver sulphide.
Currently, Asia-Pacific (APAC) is the largest inorganic salts market because of its massive chemical industry. The demand for pharmaceuticals, paints and coatings, personal care products, food and beverage products, and fertilizers is booming in the region, which is propelling the demand for a variety of inorganic salts. For instance, the growing automotive sales and construction activities are propelling the demand for paints and coatings, while the rising prevalence of several diseases is driving the consumption of pharmaceuticals. As all these products contain some or the other inorganic salts, their increasing demand is driving that of the latter.
Therefore, with the widening industrial production, the demand for inorganic salts will rise.
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