Popular plastic: Ceresana updates report on the global polypropylene market

03-Aug-2012 - Germany

polypropylene is one of the most versatile plastics. A broad range of products of day to day life is made from this polyolefin. Ceresana expects a dynamic growth of worldwide revenues generated with this second most important plastic to amount to more than US$145 billion in 2019. Especially the dynamic economic development in emerging markets will continue to boost demand for polypropylene (PP). The average annual growth rate of 4.4% in the last eight years is likely to be surpassed in the future, as is explained exhaustively in the market study recently published.

Asia-Pacific on the rise

Asian-Pacific countries already account for more than half of worldwide PP consumption. Thus, this region is the most important sales market, followed by Western Europe and North America. Yet distribution of demand for PP in the various regions of the world is likely to change notably. The analysts from Ceresana expect countries in Asia-Pacific to increase their shares in the global PP market – mainly at the expense of saturated markets in industrialized countries. Many emerging and developing countries benefit from an increasing demand in all application areas – above all in the transportation and automotives industry. Demand for light weight, fuel-efficient vehicles is increasing all over the globe. Therefore, the automobile industry substitutes a rising number of parts made from metal or rubber for weight-saving plastics.

Changes in regional demand will also have an effect on the production structure of manufacturers. The global PP capacity of about 62 million is likely to be increased by more than 23.5 million tonnes by 2019. More than 57% of these new capacities will be built in the Asian-Pacific region.

Packaging most important market sector

Major consumers of PP are producers of flexible and rigid packaging, who accounted for an aggregated demand of more than 50% in 2011. Fibers made from PP as well as consumer good reached a share of around 12% each. Also, the sectors electrics & electronics as well as the transportation and construction industry consumed a notable share of global PP demand with around 6% each. Among other application areas are, for example, medical products such as single-use syringes, Petri dishes, diagnostic devices and catheter. Decorative ribbons, corrugated cardboard, and security foils for banknotes are partially made from PP. The most comprehensive report worldwide analyzes how PP use will develop in individual sales markets.

For the following eight years, major increase in demand at 5.8% per year is expected for the transportation industry. At the other end of the spectrum is fibers with an AAGR of 2.8% only; the by far major application area will, however, remain the sector flexible and rigid packaging, albeit with significant regional and country-specific differences.

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