Plastic processing equipment to grow at 4.7% in USA, to US$25 bln by 2012

As per research conducted by Freedonia, the market for plastic processing equipment in USA will grow at 4.7% pa to reach US$25 billion in 2012 from the current US$19.75 billion. Product sales will be spurred by ongoing economic growth and rising personal income levels, resulting in increased plastics product consumption, processing activity and associated equipment demand. Market advances will be constrained to some extent by a moderation in fixed investment spending following a period of healthy gains, as well as by competition from used and rebuilt machinery. However, the large increases that have been recorded in energy and resin prices in recent years will provide some offsetting support, leading to the replacement of older plastics processing equipment by new machinery that is more productive and energy efficient.

Demand for plastic processing equipments in developing regions of Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America will outpace demand in the developed countries of USA , Western Europe and Japan through 2012. Advances will be stimulated by healthy economic growth, ongoing industrialization efforts and higher per capita income in these developing areas. China will post the largest gains in any national market, with plastics processing equipment demand in the country rising by over US$1.6 billion from 2007 to 2012, accounting for close to 25% of the global market. Two of the other three BRIC nations like India and Russia will also see strong demand while machinery sales growth in Brazil will be more subdued, partly due to the double-digit annual increases in demand that have been registered in recent years. Gains are expected to be healthy as well in lower-volume markets such as the Czech Republic , Iran , Malaysia , Saudi Arabia , Turkey and Vietnam.
Plastics processing equipment demand in developed parts of the world will expand as well, although growth will be much less robust than in developing countries. The plastic processing equipment markets will be driven by generally favourable economic conditions and further increases in plastics processing activity in developed areas, bolstering demand for plastics processing machinery as fixed investment activity increases.
Extrusion equipment will see the strongest growth of any major product type through 2012, benefitting from growth in global construction sector which will fuel demand for extruded goods like pipe and siding, as well as by further advances in extrusion technology, resulting in increased sales of higher priced, more productive machinery. Demand for reaction injection molding, rotomolding, and rapid prototyping and manufacturing machinery, which does not require the use of molds and can replace injection molding in some low-volume applications, will also grow rapidly. However, injection molding equipment will continue to account for almost two-fifths of the 2012 plastics processing machinery market total, benefitting from the greater accuracy, energy efficiency, flexibility and output of newer generations of equipment.

© 2008 by the Freedonia Group, Inc.