The global nitric acid market is expected to reach USD 23.31 billion by 2025, owing to its high consumption in fertilizer production. The nitric acid market is expected to increase at a 2.0% CAGR during the forecast period.

Out of the total demand for nitric acid in Asia-Pacific, China held more than 60% of the total revenue share in 2017. Abundant availability of precursors and high presence of downstream industries are driving the product demand in the country. Moreover, the Indian nitric acid industry is also expected to witness a rapid boost attributed to the increasing growth of fertilizers and chemical manufacturing industries in the country.

Being a hazardous and polluting manufacturing process, governments of several countries have posed strict norms which are limiting the overall growth of the global nitric acid industry. As a consequence, new process technologies have been developed over the recent years that focus on limiting the nitrous oxide emissions at significant levels. However, requirement of high capital investment has led to a low adoption of these technologies over the recent years which is expected to hinder the market growth.

Krupp Uhde and Weatherly Inc. are some of the key process technology providers of nitric acid and ammonium nitrate to manufacture with low emission of greenhouse gases. EnviNOX®, a newly developed technology by Krupp Uhde, is one of the best available process technologies, which reduces the nitrous oxide emissions up to 25ppm. Additionally, Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) together with Weatherly Inc., offer a multi-pressure technology to produce commercial nitric acid.

Growing fertilizer demand in Asia Pacific region and developed textile industries in Europe are key drivers in the global nitric acid market. In addition, the explosives industry is another significant end-user of nitric acid. Ammonium nitrate is a key nitric acid derivative utilized in the manufacturing of explosives. Companies such as Dyno Nobel Inc. and Deepak Fertilizers And Petrochemicals Corporation Limited, have forward integrated business operations that include nitric acid production as well as supply and manufacturing of end-user products such as dynamite and ANFO explosives.

Some of the companies such as Yara International ASA, CF Industry Holding Inc., Deepak Fertilizers And Petrochemicals Ltd., Orica Limited, Omnia Holdings Limited, Agrium Inc., and LSB Industries companies have strong production capabilities and global presence with multiple business operations across the globe. For instance, Yara International ASA, has an annual production capacity of more than 7.5 million tons. The company uses the product for manufacturing numerous nitrogen based fertilizers such as ammonium nitrate, calcium ammonium nitrate, potassium nitrate and others.

Key segments of the global nitric acid market

• Concentration overview
  • Weak nitric acid
  • Concentrated nitric acid
• Application overview
  • Ammonium nitrate
  • Adipic acid
  • Toluene di-Isocynate (TDI)
  • Nitrobenzene
  • Others
• End-user overview
  • Explosives
  • Fertilizers
  • Chemicals
  • Others
• Regional overview
• North America
  • US
• Europe
  • Russia
  • France
  • Germany
• Asia Pacific
  • India
  • China
• Central and South America
  • Brazil
• Middle East & Africa
  • South Africa