Leading market players are investing heavily in research and development to expand their product lines, which will help the antimony market grow even more. Market participants are also undertaking various strategic activities to expand their footprint, with important market developments including new product launches, contractual agreements, mergers and acquisitions, higher investments, and collaboration with other organizations. The antimony industry must offer cost-effective items to expand and survive in a more competitive and rising market climate.
Manufacturing locally to minimize operational costs is one of the key business tactics manufacturers use in the antimony industry to benefit clients and increase the market sector. Major players in the antimony market, including AMG, Mandalay Resources, Belmont Metals, American Elements, GeoProMining, Ltd., Korea Zinc, Nihon Seiko Co. Ltd., and others, are attempting to increase market demand by investing in research and development operations.
Campine S.A. is a diversified company that manufactures and sells flame retardant systems and recycles lead oxides and batteries distributed throughout Western Europe. Campine operates subsidiaries in France, the United States, Australia, and Belgium. In January 2021, Campine enhanced its recycling activities with a creative process to recycle chemicals directly from post-consumer and industrial metal trash. It contains the production of antimony from trash streams.
Clariant International Ltd, a subsidiary of Clariant AG, is a specialty chemicals company. It develops, manufactures, distributes, and sells specialty chemicals in customers' manufacturing and treatment processes. Its product portfolio includes additives, automotive fluids, agricultural residues, petrochemical catalysts, performance materials, surfactants, mining chemicals, intermediates, and emulsions. The company's products find application in industrial, home care, paints and coatings, crop protection, automotive, plastic, transportation, refining, and pharmaceutical markets. It operates through a network of manufacturing facilities, research and development, and technical centers worldwide.
In November 2019, Clariant introduced a new antimony-trioxide-free method for molding and laser-marking thermoplastic urethane ear tags for determining cattle and other livestock. Working with Coherent, Inc., Clariant produced an additive masterbatch that, when counted to the TPU commonly utilized to mold ear tags, creates a polymer more sensory to the near-infrared laser light from coherent laser markers.