Ashish Kolte is a Marketing Manager at DataIntelo with expertise in marketing, market intelligence, and business strategy. He combines marketing insights with industry research to analyse market trends, identify growth opportunities, and provide data-driven perspectives on emerging industries and global business developments. Here, he discusses the global growth in the PPE market.
The growth in PPE will continue at a smooth pace through 2033, primarily because government agencies and businesses have increased their efforts to provide the safest working environment possible for workers.
The current projections for the PPE market indicate that the previous spike caused by healthcare demand was now a permanent change and will continue to grow because of the regulatory environment and increased industrial production throughout the forecast period.
Analysts are now projecting that the global PPE market will be valued at approximately $128.4 billion by 2033 (at a CAGR of approximately 6.9%). This change will cause a change in how organizations manage risk, as PPE will have become embedded in their corporate policies and will no longer be an afterthought.
What is Driving PPE Demand?
PPE is the term used to describe many different types of protective equipment that are worn by workers who need to be protected from physical injuries, chemical injuries and other hazards while at work. These items include gloves, hard hats, specialized clothing, gas masks, safety glasses, earplugs, etc.
The following factors will drive the growth of the PPE market:
•Regulatory enforcement: There is a significant increase in the number of countries instituting stricter occupational safety legislation related to construction, manufacturing, health care and the energy sector. The enforcement of these regulations will result in increased safety audits conducted on an employee, penalty for employees who violate, and more thorough documentation of workplace injuries. The result of these actions will be a general increase in the base (PPE) per worker and a dis-incentive for people to use non-certified/unofficial products.
•Industrial and infrastructure growth: As large-scale infrastructure projects grow globally through continued industrialization in emerging market countries, the number of employees working in hazardous environments will also continue to increase. Construction sites, factories, mines, and logistics/freight transportation facilities are all capabilities that rely on different types of PPE and will increase based on project schedules and industrial capacity expansions.
•Awareness of health/hygiene continues: Health and hygiene expectations have changed over the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in new ways to protect against infection and improve your ability to protect yourself from respiratory disease wherever you work: hospitals; long-term care facilities; labs; or food processing plants. Even after the acute nature of these crises starts to subside, institutions that have implemented higher PPE standards, stockpiling, and training than existed 10 years ago will maintain this level of activity moving forward.
•Digitalisation and safety based on risk data: The deployment of sensors to capture data about the hazards associated with the tasks being performed is starting to supplement the use of traditional sources of information regarding hazards, such as contracts and safety programs.
There is a general consensus among researchers about what is driving the majority of revenue generated by Personal Protective Equipment. These drivers include: hand protection, protective clothing, and respiratory protection are by far the largest categories of PPE products, while head, eye, face, and hearing protection contribute to the remaining revenue derived from this category of products.
Hand Protection
The most revenue has been generated by gloves and other products used for protecting the hands. This is due to the fact that there are so many different activities that require the use of hands (tasks), and that there are also many incidents of hand injuries in industrial settings, due to the number of hand-related tasks being performed. Examples of hand protection include: metal workers using cut resistant gloves, laboratories requiring chemical resistant gloves, and food processors using food grade gloves.
Protective Clothing & Body Protection
Coveralls, flame resistant clothing (FRC), high visibility clothing (HVC), and chemical protection suits are necessary for the oil and gas industry, utilities industry, heavy construction industry and chemical processing industry. The demand for these products is expected to follow investment cycles in large capital projects, as well as compliance cycles relating to standards for arc flash, fire, and hazardous substance exposures.
Respiratory Protection
Respirators and masks are primarily needed for use in the healthcare industry, as well as in mining, construction, and manufacturing environments, in order to provide protection from exposure to dust, fumes, and gases. The demand for respiratory products is driven by both workplace policies, as well as the changing health recommendations relating to air quality, particulate exposure, and infection control.
Head, Eye and Face Protection
Helmets, face shields, goggles, and safety glasses are all classified as head protection; however they have not historically been classified as head protection in studies that reflect the most recent trends within the PPE industry. The most increased demand for head protection is found in the construction industry.
Sector Wise Application Trends
PPE is not used the same way throughout the economy. There are a few areas of application that dominate the demand for PPE due to their risk types and regulatory requirements, namely, manufacturing/industrial production (general manufacturing, automotive, steel, electronics, etc. together account for significant PPE use). In the manufacturing/Industrial sector, PPE is part of standard operating procedures, job classifications, and lock out/tag out protocols, resulting in relatively steady demand for PPE.
PPE will also be heavily used by the construction and infrastructure sectors. With the combination of working at heights, using heavy machinery, operating power tools, and having constant exposure to dust and the elements, there is a high degree of PPE usage in the Construction sector than in most other sectors. Nationwide infrastructure spending and urbanization will continue to increase the demand for helmets, safety footwear, high visibility clothing, gloves, and fall protection equipment.
The healthcare/life sciences sector includes hospitals, clinics, labs, and manufacturing companies in the pharmaceutical industry that all use personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect against biological and chemical hazards. Wearing PPE is now not just standard operating procedure in an operating room or isolated area, but it reflects the increased standard of care for infection control overall for many healthcare facilities (cities).
The oil/gas/mining sectors are some of the most regulated sectors regarding personal protective equipment and include flame resistant clothing, specialised respiratory equipment, gas detection, and any other form of impact protection. Changes in activity levels (up or down) often have a significant impact on the need for certain specialty PPE types.
Growth in these areas will be driven by a combination of regulatory maturity and industry structure with consideration of how business is conducted economically:
• Asia-Pacific – Many industry studies are identifying Asia Pacific as a major production base and consumption center. Rapid urbanization, cluster of industries, and significant projects help to promote ongoing use of PPE. The ongoing challenge remains raising awareness in smaller businesses; however, the need for enforcement of the baseline regulation remains urgent.
• North America and Europe – Both regions have established safety regulations and greater amounts of direct employee expenditure on PPE. In both regions, growth will be driven as much by upgrading to newer technology, sustainability issues, and ordering to replace aging infrastructure than creation of new markets. Additionally, in both regions there will be a greater emphasis on traceability, certification and product life cyle management.
• Middle East, Africa, and Latin America – In these regions, growth potential is closely linked to energy projects, mining operations, and industrial diversification efforts. As formal safety frameworks extend into more sectors and enforcement improves, PPE adoption is expected to broaden from large, multinational operations to domestic firms and public projects.
Key Challenges and Structural Questions
The PPE industry has a few complex, structural issues that currently impact the users, regulators and manufacturers as a direct result of the following:
-Product quality and counterfeit risk: As there is often fragmentation in procurement and the market is often driven by price, there are still continuing concerns regarding the quality level of products being manufactured and whether there is the ability to provide any compliance assurance. As a result, there is often a big difference between nominal availability of PPE and actual protection of the worker that will receive it.
– The concentration of PPE manufacturing to only a few geographic locations creates an increased risk to the market due to potential logistical bottlenecks, export controls, abrupt changes in demand through-out the globe and other issues such as natural disasters. Over the past several years there have been several recent crises that highlighted the vulnerability of existing just-in-time equipment models for critical PPE.
– Offsetting cost vs. comfort vs. compliance: A worker will be more apt to comply with wearing PPE correctly on a job site if it is comfortable to wear and is appropriate for the task they will be performing. As such, employers need to find the proper balance between budget and the need for a ergonomically designed piece of PPE that offers breathability/ease of use as they will all have significant impacts on the ultimate outcome of the worker.
-Environmental footprint: The use of single-use PPE and synthetic materials raises great concern about waste and resource use. The tightening of environmental regulations has created a significant interest in developing reusable PPE designs, utilising recyclable materials and end-of-life programs. However, these solutions must go through a painstaking analysis to ensure that the PPE created under these programs will offer a similar level of protection to the user.
Outlook to 2033: From Equipment to Systems
The market for personal protective equipment (PPE) is projected to exceed approximately $128.4 billion (6.9% CAGR) by 2033. Consequently, personal protection will continue to be one of the primary ways that organizations will manage operational risk over the next ten years.
The conversation will gradually shift from simply “What PPE do I need?” to “How PPE integrates with existing safety systems?”
For policymakers, this will require creating alignments between standards, enforcement and education so that investment in PPE results in measurable reductions in workplace injuries and occupational diseases.
For industry, it will involve re-examining their procurement processes, training methodologies, maintenance practices and data collection systems to ensure that PPE is viewed not simply as a check box, but rather an integral piece of a more comprehensive approach to safety culture.
