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Plastics
Polymeric Foams
REPORT HIGHLIGHTS
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BCC Research forecasts an overall compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 2.5% for all foams produced from commercial plastics for the period 2010-2015. This market is valued at 7.5 billion pounds in 2010 and is expected to reach nearly 8.6 billion pounds in 2015.
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Polyolefins, both polyethylenes and polypropylene foams, have a growing market of about 443 million pounds in 2010. A higher compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.8%, and a value of 509 million pounds, is forecast for 2015, based on increasing demand for cross-linked polyethylene foams in several applications.
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Polyurethane (PUR) foams, both flexible foams used primarily for cushioning and rigid foams used mostly for thermal insulation, have the largest market, 3.9 billion pounds in 2010, with a predicted compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.6% to 4.4 billion pounds in 2015.
REPORT SCOPE
INTRODUCTION
STUDY GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
In the roughly 8 years since BCC Research’s last study on the polymeric foams industry, significant changes have continued to occur in this major segment of the plastics production and processing industry. Products and markets change as technology and society change. Polymer foams find their primary applications in consumer products, such as cushioning for furniture and automobiles, thermal insulation for construction and packaging, and similar end uses that are driven by the business cycle.
Most of the markets for plastic foams are the same ones that existed a few years ago; however, there have also developed some newer markets, such as cross-linked polyolefin foam in leisure and sports goods and foamed PVC in house siding, windows/doors, and other construction shapes. A more recent development is work on foams made from biopolymers and biodegradable polymers, work done in concert with efforts to reduce the country’s dependency on petroleum and natural gas, the feedstocks for the plastics that are currently foamed.
Polymers are foamed for cost and performance advantages. Foamed plastics are lighter than nonfoamed articles made from the same resin; they require less resin and therefore achieve lower costs. Equally or more important, foamed plastics have properties different from nonfoamed ones, properties that often are advantageous and not attainable with nonfoamed plastics. The insulating and cushioning qualities of the gas bubbles in a foamed article are obvious attributes, but less obvious is the fact that a foamed article is often stronger than its nonfoamed analog. Thus structural shapes and forms, such as piping and wall siding, can be stronger when foamed.
Markets are driven by different forces. Market drivers in recent years that have caused the most significant changes have often been environmental and public perception issues. Such issues have included:
- Consumer safety issues, ranging from fire resistance and flammability to concerns over the use of plastics that are often thought to be (almost always erroneously) health hazards (especially carcinogens);
- Solid-waste disposal and recycling, a political “hot button” of the 1990s that is not quite as hot today; and
- Atmospheric protection, caused by concerns and actions taken regarding blowing agents used to produce foamed plastics. This concern has taken on greater importance more recently because of global warming.
Because of concerns over the Earth’s ozone layer and global warming, chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) foam blowing agents were banned, and their first group of replacements, (HCFCs), is also scheduled for phase-out over the future, with a total ban by 2030. The most important CFC-replacement foam blowing agent, HCFC-141b, has been banned since 2003. HFCs, the non-chlorine containing compounds that were thought to be the final replacements for CFCs, are now also under attack, not as destroyers of the ozone layer but as “super greenhouse gases,” many times more powerful than carbon dioxide in heating the atmosphere. Volatile hydrocarbon blowing agents are under increased control as air-polluting VOCs (volatile organic compounds).
Our goal is to describe the most common and popular commercial polymeric foams and their applications, their technologies, competing plastic and foams as well as those made from other materials, and future industry trends. Estimates and forecast markets are made for plastic foams of several kinds in many different important markets such as construction, transportation, and packaging. The polymers and applications covered are introduced below under Scope and Format and are discussed in greater detail in later sections of this report.
REASONS FOR DOING THE STUDY
Polymer foams touch our lives every day. Some applications are unseen, such as the insulating sheathing on our houses and inside our refrigerators, while some applications are in visible end uses, such as foamed seat cushions and polystyrene hot cups used for fast-food coffee. These products are important items in the economy, and because of the environmental issues previously noted, represent an interesting dynamic of the 21st-century American society.
The plastic foam industry is a major segment of the American plastics industry, historically accounting for about 10% of total commodity resin consumption. Foamed products, such as those used for insulation and protective shipping, reduce energy consumption and product damage and thus lead to lower manufacturing costs, less waste, and other desirable results.
BCC Research first performed and has updated this study to provide a comprehensive reference for those interested and/or involved in these products; these professionals comprise a wide and varied group of companies that make and use polymer foams, as well as process technology and equipment designers and marketers, politicians of all persuasions, and the general public. The information in this report has been gleaned and condensed from a large amount of literature and other reference materials in the course of its compilation.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
This report is intended to assist those involved in several different segments of the U.S. industrial and commercial business sectors, primarily those professionals whose main interest is in thermal insulation (construction, appliances, and the like), comfort cushioning (furniture, auto seats, and other uses), transportation (other automotive parts, such as protective cushioning and bumpers), as well as packaging applications. These professionals include those who are involved in the development, formulation, manufacture, sale, and use of foamed polymers and polymer foaming processes; and those in ancillary businesses, such as processing equipment, additives, and other support chemicals and equipment (e.g., process and product-development experts, process and product designers, purchasing agents, construction and operating personnel, market staff, and top management). This report will be of great value to technical and business personnel in the following areas, among others:
- Marketing and management personnel in companies that produce, market, and sell polymeric foams.
- Companies involved in the design and construction of process plants that manufacture polymeric foams and those that service these plants.
- Companies that supply chemicals, equipment, and other materials to plastic foam producers and users.
- Basic research personnel in academia, government, and industry.
- Financial institutions that supply money for the above-mentioned facilities, including banks, merchant bankers, and venture capitalists. Such institutions need to identify and know areas of potential trouble, as well.
- Personnel in end-user companies and industries; these are a wide ranging group of companies in industries as varied as automobile manufacture and health care products packaging.
- Personnel in government at many levels, not only at the federal level (such as the Environmental Protection Agency), but also state and local health, environmental, and other regulators who must implement and enforce the laws regarding public health and safety.
SCOPE OF REPORT
This BCC Research study covers in depth many of the most important technological, economic, political, and environmental considerations in the U.S. polymeric foams industry. It is primarily a study of U.S. markets, but because of the global nature of polymer and packaging chemistry, it touches on some noteworthy international activities — primarily those that affect the U.S., market such as the significant number of foreign firms that operate on U.S. soil.
All market figures are rounded to the nearest million pounds, and all growth rates are compounded and signified as percent compounded annual growth rates (CAGR). Because of this rounding, some growth rates may not agree exactly with figures in the market tables, especially for differences in small volumes. All market figures are at the manufacturer’s or producer’s level.
REPORT ORGANISATION
This report is segmented into 10 sections, beginning with this Introduction. The Summary that follows encapsulates our findings and conclusions, and includes a summary major market table. Here, the busy executive can find the major findings of the study in summary format.
An Overview to the industry follows, starting with an introduction to the petrochemical industry that is the source of polymers and the plastic resin industries that make the resins that go into polymer foams. Polymeric foams are introduced and each of the major foamed plastics and their principal foam structures are discussed. The section ends with a discussion of some competing foam materials, thus introducing the reader to the field of polymers and foamed plastics and foam structures.
The Polymer Foam Markets by Material Type section discusses and forecasts markets for foamed plastics by type. These include three classes of major commodity thermoplastic resins used to produce foams: polyolefins (primarily polyethylenes and polypropylene), polystyrene and PS copolymers, and polyvinyl chloride and copolymers. The largest foamed polymer group, the polyurethanes (PURs), comprises the major focus. Some specialty foams are included, as well as market estimates and forecasts for plastic foam blowing agents and PUR raw material isocyanates and polyols.
The section begins with an overall market analysis, estimate, and forecast for the major types of polymeric foams for the base year of 2009 and 5-year forecast for the 2010 and 2015 period. Each type of foam is then described in more detail with a discussion of important applications and more-detailed market forecasts.
The second market analysis section, Polymer Foam Markets by Applications, discusses and forecasts markets by polymer foam applications. Applications have been categorized into seven specific major groups:
- Appliances, primarily thermal insulation
- Building/construction, primarily insulation and PVC profiles/shapes
- Electrical/electronics, with the largest market in acoustical and noise-control foams
- Furniture and furnishings, mainly comfort cushioning
- Medical applications
- Packaging, both functional and product protection
- Transportation, primarily cushioning.t Organization (Continued)
A group of other applications, including sports equipment, shoe insoles and powder puffs, ends the section.
The next section, Technology, starts with a review of some basic polymer chemistry, manufacture, and properties of plastics used in producing plastic foams and then progresses on to conventional foam technologies. Some new polymer foam technologies are covered, including new blowing agents, polyol technology, and microcellular foams. A discussion of polymer recycling technology rounds out the Technology section.
The Industry Structure and Competitive Analysis section covers the structure of the polymeric foams industry and emphasizes the major domestic producers and suppliers, as well as trends in the industry. Some international aspects of the business are also discussed and analyzed, including the global nature of the polymer foam industry, major foreign-owned supplier companies that operate in the U.S., and trends outside the U.S.
The Environmental, Regulatory, and Public Policy Issues section follows, items of increasing importance to the polymer foams industry. Several of the most important environmental and regulatory considerations are linked, since governments around the world seem to have decided that regulations are the best means of achieving environmental ends such as saving the earth’s ozone layer and reducing greenhouse gases. Getting agreement on international cooperation and action is another matter.
This report’s last narrative section, Company Profiles, lists many supplier companies that BCC Research considers to be among the most important and/or best representatives of the polymer foam business.
Finally, this report ends with an Appendix containing a glossary of some important terms, abbreviations, and acronyms used in the chemical, polymer, and polymer foams industries.
REPORT SCOPE AND NOTATION
Some topics and materials covered in the text of this report are not specifically included in our market estimate and forecast tables. A good example is microcellular foams, an exciting technology that is currently being commercialized; however, the technology is used to foam the same resins, and commercial applications are already included in market figures.
Copyrighted and trademarked trade names are capitalized. Generic product names are lowercase, with the exception of common chemical acronyms, such as MDI and TDI, and plastics such as PE, PP, PVC, and PUR. Chemical formulae are sometimes used to abbreviate compounds, such as NaCl for sodium chloride (table salt).
METHODOLOGY AND INFORMATION SOURCES
Searches were made of the literature and the Internet. These included many leading trade publications as well as technical government compendia, and information from trade and other associations. Much product and market information was obtained from the principals involved in the industry. Corporate profile information was obtained primarily from the individual companies, especially the larger publicly owned firms. Other information sources included textbooks, directories, articles, and industry websites.
AUTHOR'S CREDENTIALS
Dr. J. Charles Forman has more than 50 years of chemical engineering and business experience in the healthcare industry, leading a major not-for-profit educational association, and as an independent analyst and technical writer. He is well-versed on the worldwide chemical process industries, with specialization in healthcare, petroleum and petrochemicals, specialty and agrochemicals, plastics, and packaging. He has written many market research reports for BCC Research on subjects including polymers and plastic packaging, petroleum processing, healthcare policy and products, food and feed additives, chemicals/petrochemicals/ specialty chemicals, pesticides, and biotechnology.
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DISCLAIMER
The information developed in this report is intended to be as reliable as possible at the time of publication and of a professional nature. This information does not constitute managerial, legal, or accounting advice; nor should it serve as a corporate policy guide, laboratory manual, or an endorsement of any product, as much of the information is speculative in nature. The author assumes no responsibility for any loss or damage that might result from reliance on the reported information or its use.
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