Speciality chemicals are differentiated products where one producer's product can be distinguished from another producer's.  Prices of these products remain high enough above costs to produce superior profits.  Speciality chemicals are generally sold to performance specifications for what they will do rather than to composition specifications for what they contain. 

• One based on functionality and the other based on an industry type classification.  In the first instance, one functional compound is targeted at many different industries for example, flocculants going into the pulp and paper industry, mining, and water treatment, or biocides going into paints, cosmetics, and oils.
  
• In the second instance a range of functional chemicals is packaged to provide a suite of products utilised in a specific industry for example plasticisers, colorants, flame retardants, lubricants, heat stabilizers, organic peroxides, antioxidants, chemical blowing agents, anti-statics and UV radiation absorbers and all functional chemical products used as plastic additives. Specific functional chemicals (surfactants, biocides, antioxidants, de-foamers, etc.) referred to are often confused with fine.