The worldwide plastics additives marketplace was worth a staggering $48.2 billion (€44.2 billion, £33 billion) last year, with this figure set to balloon in the coming five years.
PVC Pipe
This is according to a fresh report from BCC Research entitled Global Markets for Plastics Additives, which aims to identify and measure the market opportunities for the full range of plastics additives. The global additives market is broken down and measured by various parameters, and future growth is forecast for both the overall market and other possible market segments through to 2021.
The global market for plastics additives is estimated to grow from nearly $50.6 billion in 2016 to $64.6 billion by 2021 with a CAGR of five per cent for the period of 2016-2021.
Property modifiers, the leading segment of this market, will grow from nearly $27.9 billion in 2016 to nearly $35.9 billion by 2021 with a CAGR of 5.2 per cent, while property extenders segment will grow from $9.3 billion in 2016 to $11.9 billion by 2021 with a CAGR of 5.1 per cent.
Plastic additives, the report states, will continue to gain in importance in the future, not only because of the steadily rising technical standards required of polymeric materials, but also because customers are under increasing pressure to keep on raising productivity.
This translates into an increasing demand for even better additives. The market success of polymers, such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or polypropylene (PP), depends not only on the basic polymer but also on the additives that make the plastics as useful as they are. Their usefulness is largely attributed to the polymers used to make them and not the additives used. Yet, when concerns arise regarding human health and the environment, plastics additives are often found to be responsible, and the industry is required to either replace the additive or else prove that it is indeed harmless.