Polyethylene Product Lifecycle

Before discussing the lifecycle of polyethylene, it is necessary to define product life cycle as the length of time a particular commercial product 

For example, in the petrochemical industry, a gasoline additive such as tetraethyl lead (TEL), which was used to improve the performance of gasoline as a fuel in the internal combustion engine, became obsolete due to health concerns over the emission of lead-containing compounds into the environment. Consequently, TEL was developed and introduced into the marketplace, underwent a growth period and then underwent a steady decline as the substance was phased out of gasoline. The life cycle of TEL was approximately 50 years. 

The life cycle of any commercial product has four distinct phases [6], A brief summary of each phase and how each phase relates to the polyethylene industry is outlined below. 

Product Discovery and Market Introduction This is the period between the discovery of the product and the time it takes to introduce the product commercially. In the petrochemical industry, initial product introduction is often done from a pilot-plant-scale process. The introduction is usually described as a period of initial slow growth as the product is introduced into the market. However, for polyethylene, this period was most likely shortened significantly because of the urgency in the development of radar at the beginning of World War II. Somewhat arbitrarily, this phase for polyethylene took place from 1933-1943. 

Growth Phase This phase follows the successful introduction of the new product and is characterized by very rapid sales growth, the addition of new competitors and rising capacity. Economies of scale are an important part of this phase as substantial profit improvement takes place. Polyethylene is presently in the product growth phase of the product life cycle. Product consumption per capita is the best measure of consumption. 

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The production of polyethylene in the United States from 1943 xmtil 1956 is shown in Table 5.3 [9]. Even with the increased production throughout the late 1950s, polyethylene demand during this period continued to be greater than the supply, which often occurs in the rapid growth period of the product lifecycle. 

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