Changing world plastics market

The structural changes of the plastics market will emerge more clearly by 2015 leading to a decrease in importance of more mature markets. In 1900, world production and consumption of plastics reached only 20,000 tonnes. In 1995, it had risen to over 100 million tonnes. For 2015, a consumption of 300 million tonnes is expected. The first materials were thermosets such as epoxy, phenolic and unsaturated polyester resins, although they are now less important. In the middle of the last century, thermoplastics took leadership, led by PVC, PS and the polyolefins group (PE and PP). Now it is quite clear that polyolefins make up more than half of world consumption of plastics. Considering the three most important polyethylenes, PE-LD, PE-LLD and PE-HD, PE-LD, which is historically older, is ceding market share to the new PE-LLD. Both products are used for largely similar applications, especially in the field of packaging film, while PE-LLD offers the more balanced profile of properties for this purpose. PE-HD, with its broader applications like injection-moulded articles, extrusion-blown packaging materials and water pipes, continues to grow with a market share of 15%. PP''s continuing rapid volume growth is impressive. This material long ago broke out of its early competition with PE-HD and is now a model example of how properties of a plastic can be varied, as well as for the diversity of potential applications. In 2015, PP will achieve a volume growth of around 70 million tonnes, with almost 25% of the world plastics market. If we add up the regional consumption figures of PVC and the group of styrene plastics (PS, EPS, ABS and others) to provide an overall perspective, we can see that their market share is declining. The growth rates of these products are lower than that of the world economy. But we can see a different picture if we look at the regional trends. With an average of 8.5% per year, PET shows the highest growth of all plastics in the fields of bottles and film (PET B+F). While world consumption in 1995 was still only 3 million tonnes, a volume of almost 30 million tonnes is projected for 2015. Compared to this, engineering plastics have a relatively small share of the overall market. PMMA, PA and PC together make up around 4%. Another 3% can be added for the minor products POM, PBT and PPE. The high-performance plastics, such as PPS, PEI, LCP, PEEK and fluoropolymers have a negligibly small market share of well below 0.5%. Share by regions About around 12 years ago, the national groups constituting the so-called triad, namely the USA, Western Europe and Japan, had largely divided the world market for plastics up among themselves. But now some of the Asia-Pacific countries are growing rapidly to become the most important consumer markets. The high population in the Asian region and the increasing living standard of the people inevitably lead to rising demand for plastics and the articles manufactured from them. This demand is increasingly covered by the local manufacturers and processing of the plastics for various economic reasons. Thus, China will have gained 25% of the plastics world market by 2015, an impressive growth rate compared to the 10% of 20 years ago. Other countries in Asia are growing at a similar rate. Whilst market shares are growing in Asia, shares in the countries of the former triad are shrinking at the same rate. If we consider the existing production capacities and the announced expansion plans and new projects for the most important standard polymers, PE, PP, styrene plastics and PVC, by 2015, we can see that polyolefins still play the leading role. Their share in the total capacities of the aforementioned plastics was almost 60% in 1995 and will have reached almost 70% by 2015. A look at the regional distribution of capacities shows that the capacity expansion for the aforemeAdidas