Global demand for ABS is expanding about 7-8% annually. Asian demand constituted 70% of global ABS consumption in 2004 pegged at 5.5 million metric tons. Global capacity of ABS in 2004 was 7.4 million metric tons, with barely 10 producers accounting for 74% of world capacity.
In the US, ABS demand for the first three quarters of 2005 was down by approx 7% in volume compared to the same period in 2004, and is projected to grow 1-2% in the North American region. This slowdown is part of a cyclical pattern in the ABS business and not a concrete indication of a long-term decline. Supplies of ABS are very tight as the supply chain has been significantly disrupted by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. that knocked out 55% of acrylonitrile capacity and 85% of styrene capacity in North America. (Acryonitrile and styrene are two of the three monomers used to manufacture ABS). Besides these feedstock supply bottlenecks, an overabundance of manufacturing capacity exists in USA for ABS, with plants operating at 65-70%. As the plants come back onstream, there could be volatility in ABS supplies, making future supply trends hard to predict.
ABS faces competition from other polymers PP, HIPS, ABS/polycarbonate alloys, because of their favorable price/performance properties. Challenges to ABS from ABS/polycarbonate are mostly in high-end applications such as business-machine housing. ABS suppliers are countering this trend by developing new high-performance grades of the material.
11-Jan-06 
