Global Grease Market Research Report 2023-Competitive Analysis, Status and Outlook by Type, Downstream Industry, and Geography, Forecast to 2029

Global Grease Market Research Report 2023-Competitive Analysis, Status and Outlook by Type, Downstream Industry, and Geography, Forecast to 2029

Grease is a semisolid lubricant. To put it simply, grease is oil mixed with a thickener and other additives. The characteristic feature of greases is that they possess a high initial viscosity, which upon the application of shear, drops to give the effect of an oil-lubricated bearing of approximately the same viscosity as the base oil used in the grease. This change in viscosity is called shear thinning. Grease is sometimes used to describe lubricating materials that are simply soft solids or high viscosity liquids, but these materials do not exhibit the shear-thinning properties characteristic of the classical grease. For example, petroleum jellies such as Vaseline are not generally classified as greases.

Greases are applied to mechanisms that can be lubricated only infrequently and where a lubricating oil would not stay in position. They also act as sealants to prevent ingress of water and incompressible materials. Grease-lubricated bearings have greater frictional characteristics because of their high viscosity.

Market Overview:

The latest research study on the global Grease market finds that the global Grease market reached a value of USD 6586.36 million in 2022. It’s expected that the market will achieve USD 7923.88 million by 2028, exhibiting a CAGR of 3.13% during the forecast period.

Downstream demand from the Automotive sector significantly reduced in the short term

As automotive is the largest and most-common end-use industry for grease, however, under the influence of the COVID-19 Outbreak in 2020, global auto sales and production are seeing a sharp decline, thereby driving the market to further depression.
COVID-19 leads to a sharp decline in Vehicle sales, as people have restricted their outdoor activities. The expected lower demand may cause some automakers to need to adjust production throughout the year. Though some places are restarting their factories, such as some U.S. plants are slowly reopening after a nine-week shutdown amid the coronavirus outbreak, the impacts of COVID-19 on the grease industry are still expected to last longer.
In Europe, updated data that European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) released earlier this month clearly demonstrates the sheer scale of the auto industry’s manufacturing footprint, that 298 automobile assembly and engine production plants operate in Europe, 196 of which are situated within the European Union. However, production at these factories has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 crisis since mid-March, with plants being closed for 30 working days on average to date. And although many of these factories have re-started production to some extent by now, they are all still operating well below pre-lockdown capacity. Last month alone, registrations of new passenger cars in the European Union posted a year-on-year decline of 76.3%. The fact that most of Europe was under lockdown for the entire month, resulted in the sharpest drop in car demand since records began.

Long-term closing of grease dealers directly affects the sales of grease products

Affected by the coronavirus, governments around the globe have requested offline stores to stop operating to varying degrees in the first half of 2020. Accordingly, the long-term closing business of grease distributors directly affects the sales of grease products. Under such circumstances, small and medium-sized grease manufacturers will face greater market shocks, tight cash flow, and the sluggish market may accelerate the decline of SMEs.

Strength

The growing automobile sector in Asia-Pacific countries propels the demand for grease;
International companies in the global market constantly invest money in research and development to make continuous innovation;
Grease is deployed across various industries such as automobile, construction, steel, manufacturing, mining and numerous others. And its water-resistant property of the grease is useful in many applications and is very important for machines, which will lead to growing market demand for grease.

Weakness

High labor cost: As the grease market has a relatively high market maturity, and the demand for technology updating and iteration is increasing, which will lead to higher labor prices and production prices. And this will affect the development of the industry to a certain extent, small and medium-sized grease production enterprises in particular;
The production of grease depends on raw materials such as crude oil. However, in the past few years, crude oil prices have been fluctuating significantly, which will directly affect the price of grease, will have a negative impact on the industry's consumption, bring risks to the manufacturers' production and operation, and thus hinder the growth of the grease market.

Opportunity

Manufacturers who stick to the production of high-quality grease will gain traction within the grease market. As the higher emphasis on quality ensures highly durable, last longer and are more effective in grease functioning, so that users don’t need to replace such kind of greases for a long time as compared to their normal counterparts;
Emerging countries, such as China and India are developing their own industries, and as the industrial base of emerging market countries continues to develop, their demand for grease has also increased rapidly;
The increase in the need for biodegradable greases in environmentally sensitive nations and the demand for more high-performance products can be seen as an opportunity.

Threat

The grease industry is a high-consumption chemical industry, and its production process inevitably produces some emissions and pollution. With the increasing awareness of global environmental protection, countries have issued many environmental protection laws and regulations which can affect the small and medium industrial grease manufacturers adversely as they have to readily and instantly adapt to the changing rules and this may increase the operating costs of enterprises and limit the rapid development of the industry to a certain extent.

Region Overview:

Asia-Pacific is projected to account for a considerable share of the Grease market and is expected to become the largest region by 2028.

Company Overview:

Royal Dutch Shell is one of the major players operating in the Grease market, holding a share of 12.53% in 2023.

Royal Dutch Shell

Royal Dutch Shell is the number one global lubricant supplier. Shell sells a wide variety of lubricants to meet customer needs across a range of applications. These include consumer motoring, heavy-duty transport, mining, power generation and general engineering. Shell’s portfolio of lubricant brands includes Pennzoil, Quaker State, Shell Helix, Shell Rotella, Shell Tellus and Shell Rimula. They are active across the full lubricant supply chain.

Sinopec

Sinopec is one of the largest integrated energy and chemical companies in China. Its principal operations include the exploration and production, pipeline transportation and sale of petroleum and natural gas; the production, sale, storage and transportation of refinery products, petrochemical products, coal chemical products, synthetic fiber, and other chemical products; the import and export, including an import and export agency business, of petroleum, natural gas, petroleum products, petrochemical and chemical products, and other commodities and technologies; and research, development and application of technologies and information.

Segmentation Overview:

By type, Metallic Soap Thickener segment accounted for the largest share of market in 2022.

Metallic Soap Thickener

The main thickener used in grease is the metallic soap. Bases used in making greases include calcium, aluminum, sodium, barium and lithium, with 1 to 3 percent normally needed.
Greases with complex soap thickeners are becoming more popular because of higher operating temperature and superior load-carrying abilities. Complex greases offer a higher working temperature of about 38 degrees C (100 degrees F) than normal soap‑thickened products.

Non-Soap Thickener

Common Non-Soap Thickeners contain Urea (polyurea), Calcium Sulfonate, Carbon blacks, etc. Among them, polyurea thickeners are a reaction product of di-isocyanate combined with mono and/or diamines. The ratios of the ingredients will determine the characteristics of the thickener. This classification includes diurea, tetraurea, urea-urethane and others. Since there are no metallic elements in polyurea grease, the grease is ashless and subsequently more oxidatively stable. Polyurea greases are the most popular non-soap grease today.

Inorganic Thickener

Inorganic thickeners such as clay and silica consist of spheres and platelets. They thicken fluids with their large surface area. These products produce a very smooth non-melting grease that can be made to perform very well when careful consideration is given to product application.
Greases based on Inorganic thickeners are mainly used for extremely high-temperature applications. They are an ideal choice for sliding surfaces, journals, plain and rolling element bearings that run at high temperatures in applications such as conveyors, kilns, tunnel ovens. These greases do not drop [melt] as a traditional soap and complex soap thickened greases. At extreme temperatures will retain their grease consistency, will not drip out, will stay in place, and provide efficient lubrication and protection to the equipment and parts.

Application Overview:

By application, the Automotive segment occupied the biggest share from 2018 to 2022.

Key Companies in the global Grease market covered in Chapter 3:

Exxon Mobil Corporation
Dow Chemical
Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum Group
Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd
Klüber Lubrication
SKF
BP
Total S.A.
JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation
Kyodo Yushi Co., Ltd.
Sinopec
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited
Axel Christiernsson
Chevron Corporation
Petromin Corporation
China National Petroleum Corporation
Royal Dutch Shell
Lukoil
Fuchs Petrolub
Lopal

In Chapter 4 and Chapter 14.2, on the basis of types, the Grease market from 2018 to 2029 is primarily split into:

Metallic Soap Thickener
Non-Soap Thickener
Inorganic Thickener
Others

In Chapter 5 and Chapter 14.3, on the basis of Downstream Industry, the Grease market from 2018 to 2029 covers:

Automotive
Construction & Off-Highways
General Manufacturing
Steel
Mining
Others

Geographically, the detailed analysis of consumption, revenue, market share and growth rate, historic and forecast (2018-2029) of the following regions are covered in Chapter 8 to Chapter 14:

North America (United States, Canada)
Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Netherlands, Turkey, Switzerland, Sweden)
Asia Pacific (China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia)
Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina)
Middle East & Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, South Africa)