Plasticizer demand

The Cg—0 2 branched, odd and even, linear and internal olefins are used to produce improved flexible poly(vinyl chloride) plastics. Demand for these branched olefins, which are produced from propylene and butylene, is estimated to be increasing at a rate of 2% per year. However, the growth of the linear a-olefins is expected to slow down to a rate of 5% per year from 1992 to 1997 (3), as opposed to growth rates of 7—10% in the 1980s. 

Internal plasticizing demands a chemical relationship between the components which constitute the product. Therefore, good effects can be expected from copolymers of styrene and isobutylene, ethylene, or diolefins like butadiene or isoprene. Internal plasticizing of PVC can be effected by copolymerizing vinyl chloride with acrylates of higher alcohols or maleates and fumarates. The important ABS products are internal copolymers of butadiene, styrene, and acrylonitrile. The hardness of the unipolymers of styrene and acrylonitrile can be modified by butadiene which, as a unipolymer, gives soft, rubberlike products. As the copolymerization parameters of most monomers are known, it is relatively easy to choose the most suitable partner for the copolymerization. When the product of the r—values is l, there is an ideal copolymerization, because the relative reactivity of both monomers toward the radicals is the same. Styrene/butadiene, styrene/vinyl thiophene, and... 

BASF, a multinational chemicals industry leader, reported that plastics consumption grew from 86 million tons in 1990 to 174 million tons in 2003. At one time, BASF projected that plastics demand would grow further to 318 million tons in 2015. However, due to the global economic crisis of 2008-2009, the picture for plastics consumption worldwide changed significantly. Decreasing sales, plastics plant shutdowns and employee layoffs became commonplace. BASF, for example, reported reductions in its production in 2009, and shortened work hours were implemented for more than 4,000 employees early that year. By June 2009, BASF shortened hours for an additional 3,000 employees and planned to cut 2,000 jobs by the end of the year. 

As of mid-2010, plastics demand showed signs of improvement. For the first quarter, BASF reported a sales increase over the first quarter of 2009 of 26% to approximately 2.5 million, due to higher capacity utilization. While U.S. and European economies had rebounded to a small extent by mid 2010, Asian markets were extremely strong. Meanwhile, Dow Chemical continues its efforts to move away from commodity chemicals and focus more on specialty chemicals. In April 2009, Dow acquired Rohm and Haas for 15 billion. 

Freedonia, US Degradable Plastics Demand to Reach 370 Million Pounds in 2008, news release, Nov. 2004. 

The demand for additives naturally reflects the demand for plastics. Demand for plastics depends in turn on the sale of manufactured goods such as construction products, vehicles, domestic appliances, business machines, televisions, packaging, toys, shoes etc. There are also secondary factors promoting an increased usage of additives in every tonne of polymer. 

The price of PLA is predicted to equal that of PET by 2010 and therefore in the near future is expected to become a commodity polymer. It is being presently produced by Hycail, Galactic, Cargill (which is planning a production capacity of 0.5 million tonnes/year in 2010), and Toyota. PT Toyota Bio Indonesia was established in April 2001 to grow sweet potatoes for the manufacture of bioplastics. At present the global bioplastics market is just 20,000 tonnes annually, but Toyota calculates that as much as 30 million tonnes of the total annual plastics demand of 150 million tonnes could be replaced by bioplastics. In view of that potential, Toyota aims to increase production to 20 million tonnes with a potential sales value of five trillion Yen [38]. This would correspond to two-thirds of the global market of bioplastics by 2020, equivalent to 25% of Toyota s consolidated sales in 2003. 

Figure 7.2 Carbon fibre reinforced plastics demand.

Plastics Today, 2010. Q1 earning at Dow, ExxonMobil, and BASF point to global plastics demand growth. Accessed at . 

The total plastic demand in Europe was nearly 48 million tonnes at 2011. Figure 9.1 clearly shows that the packaging industry has the largest share (24.2%), which is followed by building and construction (22.1 %) the automotive sector also needs lots of different plastics (14.6%). The packaging industry basically utilises commodity... 

Homogenization of plasticizer or solvent-free plastics (plastication) demands high shear forces. It is accomplished by internal melt mixing to eliminate phase boundaries between polymer particles, zones of different densities, and internal stresses. This problem is very important mainly in mixing PVC paste-making resin which has a surface specially treated at high temperature for a better resistance to plasticizers [7]. The plastication is then slightly more difficult to realize PVC dry blends allow the use of faster processes for their transformation. 

Plastics that are most often used as food packaging materials include polyolefines, polyesteres, polyvinyl chloride, polyvinyli-dene chloride, polystyrene, polyamide, various resins and so on. For example, the world plastic demand in 2011 was dominated by polyethylene, including low density polyethylene (PE-LD), linear low density polyethylene (PE-LLD, 17%) and high density polyethylene (PE-HD, 12%), polypropylene (PP, 19%), polyvinyl chloride (PVC, 11%), polystyrene solid (PS) and expandable (PS-E, 7.5%), polyethylene terephthalate (PET, 6.5%), polyurethane (PUR, 7%) and other plastic types (20%). An overview of the main types of polymeric packaging materials is given in Table 12.73. 

Worldwide metallocene plastic demand. From The Catalyst Group Spring House, PA. 

Year Quarter Black Plastic Demand (000 lb) Clear Plastic Demand (000 lb)... 

China s plastics industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in China due to the rapid development and soaring demand in such plastics end-use markets as packaging, agriculture, consumer products, construction, automotive and other general industry. Total end-use plastics demand reached 19.7 million tonnes in 1998 and advanced to 32.9 million tonnes by 2003, increasing by 10.8% annually. Total plastics production increased to 16.9 million tonnes in 2003. China also imported 16.5 million tonnes of plastics, a record high, in 2003. 

Table 2.16 Automotive Plastics Demand (thousands of tonnes)...

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