Building and Construction Sealants Market Trends

Growth Drivers

• Growing focus on sustainability: The increasing focus on sustainable building methods and environmental concerns is driving up the pace of the adoption of green sealants in the building industry. Significantly, the use of low-volatile organic compound (VOC) sealants has risen, as builders and architects strive toward minimizing the environmental footprint. Additionally, other sustainable material-based sealants, like bio-polyurethane made from plants, are witnessing increased demand. Thus, to meet these demands, manufacturers have started investing in R&D, producing new, greener sealant products that emphasize recyclability, reusability, and minimizing waste. This trend toward sustainability is expected to continue to push growth in the sealants market in upcoming years.
• Rising construction activities in emerging markets: The developing economies are engaged in most of their construction activities, hence leading the sealants industry as one of the growth drivers. Consequently, rapid urbanization and economic growth in these regions face an exponential demand for infrastructure development, housing, and commercial and industrial establishments. This factor is boosting the demand for high-performance sealants that would provide sustainability, durability, and energy efficiency to the structures. The explosion in construction activities is likely to continue with population growth, urban migration, and government initiatives, thus opening greater prospects for lucrative opportunities to explore these emerging markets and capitalize on resultant growth prospects for sealant manufacturers.
• Sealants utilization in non-conventional applications: The significant reason for industrial growth is the expanding application of sealants into unconventional areas. Traditionally, sealants were widely used in construction and industrial applications, but owing to the advantages, sealants are being increasingly applied in a host of unconventional areas. For instance, sealants find their increasing uses in the automotive industry for bonding and insulation, in the electronic industry for protection and encapsulation, and in the medical area for wound care and assembling devices.
  
  Moreover, due to the sustainable and eco-friendly demand, the use of sealants is extended to new areas such as renewable energy systems, energy storage devices, and roofing with greening functions. For instance, specialty sealants are used in special applications, such as fire stops, electrical or thermal insulation, and aircraft applications.

Challenges

• Complexities in expanding into new geographies: The building and construction sealants market is witnessing an expansion into new markets and geographies which involves dealing with various regulatory frameworks, adapting to local market preferences, and forming strategic partnerships with regional players. Also, diversifying operations into new geographies accommodates heavy investment in market research, localization of products, and supply chain infrastructures to ensure timely delivery and assistance. Sustaining these challenges sealant manufacturers fail to grasp new revenue streams and consequently retain their positions as global industry leaders.
• Increasing competition amongst low-cost manufacturers: The competition in the building and construction sealants market is growing intense owing to the emergence of low-cost manufacturers. They leverage benefits in cheap labor, favorable regulatory environments, and government incentives for export-oriented units to offer a raft of high-volume, low-cost sealant products. The competitive market has placed downward pricing pressure, minimizing the profit margin and thus compelling established manufacturers to restructure their pricing policy, product mix, and cost structures.