Improving performance through additives

The uses of plastics and plastics products have now become undisputedly part of the modern lifestyle. This has given rise to the complementary industry of additives manufacturing that is becoming prevalent in Asia.

Additives are substances added in small amounts to modify, improve or strengthen properties to  bring about the desired change. Modern plastics products are made by adding additives to polymers to make them safe, durable and environmentally friendly.  Other advantages  include enhancing appearance and making plastics easier to process.

As an example, BASF researchers have developed Ultradur? High Speed, a high strength engineering plastic. The secret of this innovation lies in an additive consisting of finely distributed nano-particles between 50 and 300 nanometers in size.

This high-speed variant of Ultradur features a number of key enhanced properties. The product’s significantly improved  flow  reduces  cycle  times. It also enables thin-walled parts,  for example in the electronics industry, to be easily manufactured. The product’s final characteristics, such as heat distort resistance or mechanical properties, are scarcely affected by the modification.

Because of the rising energy consumption and capital expenditures, there is no denying that there is a high cost involved in additive manufacturing. Initial high setup cost is the major concern.  However, in the long term, the return on investment more than compensate for the high cost.

Growth in plastics additives manufacturing is a reflection of the growth in polymers manufacturing, which in turn is affected by the demand from plastics end-use industries. In Asia, the demand is coming from high growth industries such as automotive, consumer electronics and construction.

China is known as the factory of the world because many end-user manufacturing plants from a wide variety of industries had relocated  there.  In Southeast Asia, Thailand and Indonesia are coming up as leading industrial hubs, particularly in automotive manufacturing. These industries often require high performance and high strength additives for advanced plastics applications.

Transparency Market Research,  a market intelligence company, expects the plastics additives industry to demonstrate a high growth rate over the next few years.  It says that the global plastic additives market revenue reached $39.7 billion in 2011.  Revenue is expected to reach $47.8 billion by 2016, growing at a CAGR of 3.8 percent from 2011 to 2016. By 2016, the segment of plasticizers is expected to be generating the largest revenue, followed by flame-retardant additives.Transparency Market Research also says  that  among all the geographical regions, Asia Pacific is leading globally both in terms of production and consumption of plastic additives. This is caused by, among other reasons, an increase in demand from end-use market such as the automobile industry and construction industry.

Moreover, the automobile industry in China and India is expected to grow at over 8 percent and 14 percent respectively. The demand from mature markets such as the U.S. and Europe is also expected to increase because of an expected recovery from a sluggish economy.

Transparency  Market  Research concludes that the opportunities in plastic additives market are  huge  and  many market players are continuously investing and focusing on new product development. BASF remains the biggest manufacturer of plastic additives.Other manufacBodega