Editorial Article
Two Clocks: What Construction Chemicals Is Allowed to Sell, and How Much of It a Building Now Needs
Since 24 August 2023, a professional or industrial user of a diisocyanate in Europe has had to complete a standardised training course and work under a defined combination of technical and organisational measures. That one line, buried in an annex of REACH, has quietly reshaped a large share of the adhesives, sealants and coatings sold in Europe.
It is also the cleanest illustration of what now governs this market. Regulation in construction chemicals runs on two clocks, and they tick at different speeds. One clock decides what may legally be placed on the market. The other decides how much chemistry a building actually needs. The suppliers optimising for a single clock are being re-priced by the other.
Clock one: what you are allowed to sell
The diisocyanate restriction, introduced by Commission Regulation (EU) 2020/1149 amending REACH Annex XVII, is the most consequential single chemical restriction for this category. Diisocyanates are harmonised as respiratory and skin sensitisers, and since 24 August 2023 they may be used in industrial and professional applications only where the required measures are implemented and the training completed — with the obligation passed down the supply chain by whoever places the substance or mixture on the market. Polyurethane adhesives, sealants and coatings are directly in scope. The practical consequence has been a sustained reformulation push toward hybrid, silane-modified and waterborne chemistries.
The broader clock is the revised Construction Products Regulation (EU) 2024/3110, adopted in November 2024, in force since 7 January 2025 and applying in the main from 8 January 2026. It requires environmental characteristics to be declared on the basis of life-cycle assessment, strengthens assessment and verification, and delivers both through the Digital Product Passport. The Commission’s published timetable puts the DPP registry framework in July 2026, the registry operational from 20 July 2026, and the delegated act covering construction materials in Q2 2027.
Read that as an infrastructure change, not a labelling one. Product data becomes machine-readable and attached to a building model. Suppliers with structured technical data gain a specification advantage; suppliers whose specification support is a PDF and a rep’s memory acquire a fixed compliance cost ahead of a deadline they cannot move. The cost of that obligation falls hardest on small formulators, which is how compliance regimes reshape market structure.
Clock two: how much chemistry the building needs
The second clock does not restrict anything. It multiplies.
The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism enters its definitive regime from 1 January 2026, and cement — a sector responsible for roughly 7% of man-made greenhouse-gas emissions — is one of the products in scope. The most effective near-term decarbonisation lever available to the industry is clinker substitution through supplementary cementitious materials and blended cements. That is where the two clocks connect, and the connection runs in this market’s favour: every tonne of clinker replaced raises the admixture intensity required to make the resulting binder work, place and last. Decarbonising the binder is a demand driver for the chemistry that goes into it.
The tonnage underneath the market is not growing. Global cement production in 2024 is estimated at approximately 3.9–4.0 billion tonnes, falling below four billion for the first time since 2012 as China’s output declined by an estimated 182 million tonnes to around 1.84 billion tonnes — still 47% of world output — while India added roughly 7% in a single year to about 450 million tonnes. Value is growing while tonnage is flat or falling. That is only possible through intensity and specification.
The renovation mandate is the other half of the demand argument, and it is underwritten by law rather than by the cycle. 85% of EU buildings predate 2000 and 75% perform poorly on energy, while the annual renovation rate sits near 1%. The revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EU) 2024/1275, to be transposed by 29 May 2026, requires Member States to renovate the worst-performing 16% of non-residential buildings by 2030 and 26% by 2033. Rehabilitation consumes repair mortars, bonding agents, waterproofing and sealants at several times the rate of new build per square metre — which is why repair and waterproofing volumes hold up in a downturn that takes admixture and flooring volumes first.
Outside the EU the pattern repeats with weaker enforcement. The United States runs emissions and VOC rules state by state alongside federal standards, penalising suppliers without national formulation portfolios. India has extended its BIS Quality Control Order regime into building materials — the Gypsum-based Building Materials (Quality Control) Order 2024 requires ISI-mark licensing under the BIS conformity-assessment regime, applying six months after publication with a twelve-month exemption for micro-enterprises. The Gulf Building Code sets a regional baseline for the world’s most demanding exposure conditions. Across the Gulf and India, code enforcement rather than code existence remains the binding factor.
The technology answer is already specified
The chemistry that satisfies the second clock is largely known. Crystalline admixtures react with moisture and cement-hydration by-products to form insoluble crystals that close cracks; optimal dosages sit in the 1–1.5% range by weight of binder, and healing performance improves materially when superabsorbent polymers, fibres or bacterial systems are combined with them, with repaired crack widths reported up to 800 micrometres. The research base has firmed up: a 2025 systematic review in the Journal of Building Engineering consolidates the evidence on crack width, cracking age, exposure conditions and mineral-admixture interaction. The strategic point is that this moves waterproofing from a surface-applied system to a property engineered into the concrete itself — a different value pool, and a different set of competitors.
The harder race is reformulation for low-clinker and geopolymer binders, where decarbonisation rules push the cement system away from Portland clinker at exactly the moment admixture portfolios are optimised for it. Suppliers that re-engineer first for non-Portland and blended systems capture a specification position that is expensive to displace. The industry’s own spending shows where it thinks the frontier is: Sika filed 121 new patents and recorded 234 inventions in 2025 across 16 technology centres and 1,841 R&D staff, and made a strategic investment in Giatec, an AI-driven concrete testing and sensor business — buying into the data layer, not only the chemistry layer.
What the two clocks do to market value
Pheonix Research sizes the global construction chemicals market at USD 88.0 billion in 2025, rising to USD 138.2 billion by 2033 — a 5.8% compound annual growth rate, or 1.57 times the 2025 level. Waterproofing systems account for USD 26.4 billion in 2025, equal to 30.0% of category value, and grow at 6.2% a year to USD 42.7 billion by 2033 — faster than the market as a whole, because waterproofing is where infrastructure durability, coastal and saline exposure, groundwater control and climate resilience converge.
Both clocks point the same way for suppliers who are ready for them: chemical compliance decides who may sell in Europe at all, and carbon rules decide how much of the portfolio the next decade needs. Neither is a marketing exercise, and the Digital Product Passport will make that plain to anyone who treats it as one.
The full analysis is in Global Waterproofing and Construction Chemicals Market Size, Share & Forecast to 2033.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the EU diisocyanate restriction and which products does it affect?
Since 24 August 2023, industrial and professional use of diisocyanates in the EU requires a defined combination of technical and organisational measures and completion of a standardised training course, with the obligation passed down the supply chain. It directly conditions polyurethane adhesives, sealants and coatings and has driven reformulation toward hybrid, silane-modified and waterborne chemistries.
When does the Digital Product Passport apply to construction products?
The revised Construction Products Regulation (EU) 2024/3110 entered into force on 7 January 2025 and applies in the main from 8 January 2026. The Digital Product Passport registry framework is due in July 2026, the registry operational from 20 July 2026, and the delegated act covering construction materials is expected in Q2 2027.
Does clinker substitution reduce demand for construction chemicals?
No — it raises it. Every tonne of clinker replaced with supplementary cementitious materials or blended cement increases the admixture intensity required to make the resulting binder work, place and last. Decarbonising the binder is a demand driver for construction chemicals, not a threat to it.
What is the EU renovation mandate and why does it matter to this market?
The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EU) 2024/1275, to be transposed by 29 May 2026, requires Member States to renovate the worst-performing 16% of non-residential buildings by 2030 and 26% by 2033. Rehabilitation consumes repair mortars, bonding agents, waterproofing and sealants at several times the rate of new build per square metre.