Caprolactam market witnesses significant growth, estimated to continue in the coming years

05-May-14

The caprolactam market, along with its end use in polyamide 6, witnessed a significant growth in the past few years and this growth is estimated to continue in the coming years, as per Research and Markets. Quality, durability, lightweight nature, excellent energy absorbing property, an upsurge in the demand for durable polyamide 6, the demand for recyclable caprolactam, and the upcoming safety regulations & innovative techniques developed for its use will be the key influencing factors for the global caprolactam market with the increased emphasis on its different types and their applications. Currently, the Asia-Pacific region is the largest consumer of caprolactam. Among all the countries in the region, China and Japan lead the caprolactam market, with the largest share in the regional volumetric consumption of caprolactam in 2012. The market volume of caprolactam is comparatively low in the ROW region, and is estimated to grow with a low CAGR of 2.9% from 2014 to 2019. Almost 29.6% of the total caprolactam demand was for the automotive segment in 2012, followed by consumer goods application as the fastest growing end-user segment. As an end-user, automotive is the largest segment of caprolactam, primarily due to its high penetration in all the regions and the increased demand for lightweight polyamide 6 from auto component manufacturers. The Asia-Pacific and the European regions are the most active markets in terms of strategic initiatives, owing to their emerging and mature market demands respectively. The automotive end-user industry led this rapid growth in the polyamide 6 market, backed by the global automotive vehicle production which is estimated to reach 81 million units in 2013. The important caprolactam manufacturers include BASF SE (Germany), Royal DSM N.V. (The Netherlands), SINOPEC (China), UBE Industries (Japan), Honeywell International (U.S.), China Petrochemical Development Corporation (China), China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (China), Shandong Haili Chemical Industry (China).