in the Finnish chemical industry - Kemia-lehti

A pallet of traditional Lemon Juice & Glycerine soap is about to start its way to Finnish households.Oy Transmeri Absystematically to attain these goals.The industry has its own voluntaryprogrammes related to these topics, withthe Cleanright website as an excellentexample.The purpose of Cleanright is forinstance to advise consumers how toobtain the best results from cleaningproducts, how to use them safely, andwhat to do in the event of an accident ormisuse. It is also stated on the site that byusing products responsibly, consumerscan save money and do their bit for theenvironment.Domestic sales of cosmetics, toiletries, and detergentsin Finland in 2012.Net sales values, in million euros, member companies of the Finnish Cosmetic, Toiletry,and Detergent Association (about 90 per cent of the total market).Product groupDomesticproductsImportedproductsTotalsalesChange %2012/2011Cosmetic and toiletry products 58.6 359.6 418.2 1.6Household washing, cleaning, andmaintenance products11.7 93.5 105.2 2.0Institutional and industrial washing,cleaning, etc. products32.3 40.0 72.3 0.8Other technochemical products 13.5 17.1 30.6 10.2Total 116.1 510.3 626.3 2.0I&I sector surprisedpositivelyThe Finnish institutional and industrial(I&I) washing and detergent market hasbeen affected by the economic downturn,but in 2012 it managed to gain a 0.8 percent growth. Hopefully this positivetrend continues in the future and greaterhygiene awareness, linked to increasedfocus on general well-being, will be thedriving force for the business.The I&I market structure differsgreatly from the household detergentand cosmetic sectors. Multinationalbrands dominate the local householddetergent and cosmetic markets, but inthe I&I sector approximately 45 per centof all detergents on the Finnish marketare produced domestically.Finnish companies are small to mediumsize, therefore they are unreasonablyaffected by the economic situation andregulatory changes, including the cost.ChallengingregulationIn the detergent sector the biggestregulatory change and challenge in 2013is related to biocides, chemical agentsdesigned to destroy living organisms.This change affects both household andI&I detergent sectors.The aim of the new EU BiocidalProducts Regulation, enforced as of1 September 2013, is to ensure a highlevel of human health and environmentalprotection. It presents several improvementsto the Biocides Directiverequirements. The implementationwill, however, be extremely costly forthe industry since the product authorisationprocess includes extensiveapplication dossier compilation and highauthorisation fees.The total costs for maintaining acurrent biocidal product portfolio for anaverage size SME may rise to 2–3 millioneuros in total, including all research andauthorisation costs. For a small company44 KEMIA 5/2013