Outlook 2016: Sustainability focus to yield green innovations

Mr. Rob T. Bindner, Vice President - Asia, PolyOne Corp. shares his views on emerging trends in 2016:

"The most important trends in the plastics industry will still be sustainability, high-performance and customer-focused solutions. Regarding sustainability, it will be primarily focused on those green innovations which are not only efficient for business but helpful for development of our end users who benefit from our solutions.  PolyOne is also committed to meeting the needs of the present without compromising future generations’ ability to meet their needs. We also have established the “PolyOne Sustainable Solutions” certification to denote those products or services that meet defined standards for sustainability in areas such as renewability, recycle-ability, reusability, eco-conscious composition, or resource efficiency.

PolyOne offers a number of engineered materials solutions that help to promote these emerging technologies. For example, PolyOne, Xindao and XD Design developed all of the molded plastic casing components for their charger from PolyOne’s reSound™ biopolymer, which Xindao estimates will reduce the CO2 footprint for this product by as much as 35 percent compared to alternatives. Using reSound, a durable, eco-conscious material that offers the same functional and aesthetic behavior as conventional engineering polymers, enabled XD Design to reach both performance and sustainability goals.

On the other hand, the regional plastics manufacturing industry is highly competitive. The competition is based on many factors including technology innovation, production capacity, product improvement, service networking, product delivery, marketing insight etc. Our competitors range from large international companies with broad product offerings to local independent custom producers whose focus is a specific market niche or product offering. Against these, we believe the strength from our brand and reputation, diverse solutions portfolio, speed to market, efficient and fast delivery, coupled with the quality of products and agility of our distribution network, will allow us to differentiate and grow.

PolyOne’s customer-focused business units are distinguished by the breadth and depth of their materials, services and technologies. Our businesses serve a diverse array of end markets and hold leading industry positions.  Inspired by our customers’ challenges, we are featuring advanced solutions that help solve the toughest issues in material selection, distribution, manufacturing, colourants and design.  

Giving customers the right solutions
We offer many families of materials to help solve the demanding application needs of our customers. Our solutions are the right choice for customers who want to achieve profit and growth with innovative products, enter new markets, expand globally and much more.  

In the next year, we will still be featuring advanced solutions that help solve the toughest issues in material selection, distribution, manufacturing, colourants and design. And besides production capability and marketing development, we are also investing in the local market. For example, our new Asia Innovation Center in Shanghai reflects the voice of the customer and gives us unique footprint from which we can better serve regional customers by consolidating research activities in Shanghai. In the future, we will continuously enhance our knowledge within the region to create greater opportunities to collaborate with customers to enable us to be better equipped to understand their unique needs.

Some high-performance products will be further contributed to the market. For example, PolyOne’s soft-touch GLS™ thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) material provides smooth, silky texture for comfort, the innovative FiLIP™ 2 wearable phone and locator for children can stand up to the demands of active kids during outdoor play and sports, staying bright and maintaining material performance attributes.

InVisiO™ Color Inspiration 2016, a collection of four influential and emerging colours. These four palettes help stimulate the creative minds of designers to incorporate up-and-coming color trends into their designs.  ColorMatrix™ Select, a new service combines advanced liquid colourants, Web-accessed software, and automated dispensing technology to offer a complete package that enables companies and designers to take greater control of their colour development and supply chain. Percept™ Authentication Technologies present a full-spectrum portfolio of formulations and consultative services that employ covert, overt and forensic techniques. With these solutions, manufacturers can reduce potential risks and loss of revenue from counterfeits in consumer goods, medical devices, packaging, and consumer electronics markets.

Exploring bigger Asian markets
First of all, we are proud and excited to be expanding in Asia in support of our customers and our dedicated PolyOne associates who serve them. Even among the global economic recession, we are still keeping cautiously optimistic for Asia especially the dynamic China market, our commitment to customers in Asia has never been stronger. We continue to invest in Asia so that our customers can innovate and grow.  

In this region, the China market is very important to us and there is much potential for the sales performance growth here. As companies continue to widen their global manufacturing footprints, the demand for advanced technologies, especially in healthcare packaging, premium food packaging and consumer electronics sectors is on the rise. We are also confident about Southeast Asia market performance, especially Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. We are optimistic with the regional markets and believe that we can achieve more from these countries if they maintain a stable political situation and increasing domestic spending power."

Mr. Rob T. Bindner
Vice President, Asia
PolyOne Corp.
Tel: +86-21 6028 4888
Fax +86-21 6028 4999
E-mail: jennifer.huang@polyone.com
Website: www.polyone.com