Global demand for PVC is dominated by the Asia-Pacific region

17-Jun-14

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is among the most widely used polymers that finds its place in a diverse range of applications, owing to its properties and price effectiveness. It is manufactured by employing vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) as feedstock, which itself can be manufactured by ethylene dichloride and acetylene; EDC based process is more prevalent due to environmental concerns related to acetylene based route to VCM. More than 90% of the PVC production is by suspension resin polymerization process, while some considerable number of processes also use emulsion and bulk polymerization. As per ReportLinker, demand for PVC is dominated by the Asia-Pacific region, which is bound to grow, driven primarily by the huge consumpion by China and the potential of the Indian market. The region consumes more than half of the global PVC produced annually, while within the Asia-Pacific, China and India collectively consumed more than 75% of the regional demand. Rigid applications of PVC hold a major share in the Asia-Pacific market, but significant investments in phthalate as well as non-phthalate plasticizers indicate a considerable growth for flexible PVC applications in the region. ROW is expected to be the fastest growing PVC market, while Europe is also expected to add significant market demand by 2018, which is driven by strong anticipated growth in Russia and Turkey. The demand for PVC is strong through the manufacturers of pipes, fittings, profiles, and tubes that account for more than 60.0% of the total global consumption. The PVC pipes are widely used in building, construction, chemical, energy, and other industrial applications. Consumption of PVC for the manufacturing of profile & tubes and pipe & fittings is expected to grow at a highest CAGR of about 5.34% and 5.15%, from2013 to 2018. The construction industry, was the major end user industry, using PVC products, accounting for more than 65.00% of the total global PVC consumption. The increasing demand for electric vehicles, wood plastic composites, and innovation of bio-based additives, for the improvement of recycled PVC, enclose major opportunities in the PVC market.