The specialty chemicals industry is a sector within the broader chemical industry that produces a diverse range of high-value chemicals and materials used in various applications. These chemicals, also known as performance or effect chemicals, are formulated to provide specific functions, enhance product performance, or meet specific customer requirements. Specialty chemicals are used in a wide array of industries, including automotive, aerospace, agriculture, construction, electronics, food and beverage, personal care, pharmaceutical, and textile.

Specialty chemicals are usually manufactured in batch chemical plants using batch processing techniques.[4] A batch process is one in which a defined quantity of product is made from a fixed input of raw materials during a measured period of time. The batch process most often consists of introducing accurately measured amounts of starting materials into a vessel followed by a series of processes involving mixing, heating, cooling, making more chemical reactions, distillation, crystallization, separation, drying, packaging etc., taking place at predetermined and scheduled intervals. The manufacturing processes are supported by activities such as the quality testing, storage, warehousing, logistics of the products, and management by recycling, treatment and disposal of by-products, and waste streams. For the next "batch" the equipment may be cleaned and the above processes repeated.

Most specialty chemicals are organic chemicals that are used in a wide range of everyday products used by consumers and industry. It is a consumer driven sector and as such the specialty chemical industry has to be innovative, entrepreneurial and consumer-driven. In contrast to the production of commodity chemicals that are usually made on large scale single product manufacturing units to achieve economies of scale, specialty manufacturing units are required to be flexible because the products, raw materials, processes &, operating conditions and equipment mix may change on a regular basis to respond to the needs of customers.

In the United Kingdom there are many speciality chemical companies that are members of the British Association of Chemical Specialties (BACS) and also the Chemical Industries Association (CIA). Most of these companies have their manufacturing units based in the North of England for example see the membership of the Northeast of England they are members of the Northeast of England process Industry Cluster (NEPIC).