US market for polymeric foam to grow at CAGR of 2.8%

The U.S market for polymeric foam was nearly 7.9 bln lbs in 2014. This market is predicted to reach nearly 8.1 bln lbs in 2015 and nearly 9.3 bln lbs in 2020, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.8%, as per BCC Research. The polyurethanes segment reached nearly 4.4 bln lbs in 2015. This market is expected to grow to nearly 5.1 bln lbs in 2020, with a CAGR of 3%. The polystyrene market was nearly 2.3 bln lbs in 2015. This market is expected to grow to 2.4 bln lbs in 2020, with a CAGR of 2.4%. In the roughly four years since BCC Research's last study on the polymeric foams industry, the changes we found in this major segment of the plastics production and processing industry were more evolutionary than revolutionary. Polymer foams find their primary applications in consumer products, such as cushioning for furniture and automobiles, thermal insulation for construction and packaging, and similar end uses that are driven by the business cycle. As the business cycle has turned upwards again after the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009, these products are again getting attention and sales. Most of the markets for plastic foams are the same ones that have existed for years. In recent years some newer markets have also developed, such as cross-linked polyolefin foam in leisure and sports goods and foamed PVC in house siding, windows/doors and other construction shapes. A more recent development is work on foams made from biopolymers and biodegradable polymers, work done in concert with efforts to reduce the country's dependency on petroleum and natural gas, the feedstocks for the plastics that are currently foamed. The focus of this study is on conventional plastic foams, those made from synthetic chemical feedstocks; foams made from newer bioplastics are outside our scope and are the subject of other studies and reports. Polymers are foamed for cost and performance advantages. Foamed plastics are lighter than nonfoamed articles made from the same resin; they require less resin and therefore achieve lower material costs. Equally or more important, foamed plastics have properties different from nonfoamed ones, properties that often are advantageous and not attainable with nonfoamed plastics. The insulating and cushioning qualities of the gas bubbles in a foamed article are obvious attributes, but less obvious is the fact that a foamed article is often stronger than its nonfoamed analog. Thus, structural shapes and forms, such as piping and wall siding, can be stronger when foamed, even though this may seem counterintuitive. Markets are driven by different forces. Market drivers in recent years that have caused the most significant changes have often been environmental and public perception issues. Such issues have included: Consumer safety issues, ranging from fire resistance and flammability to concerns over the use of plastics that are often thought to be (almost always erroneously) health hazards (especially carcinogens). Solid waste disposal and recycling, a political 'hot button' of the 1990s that recently has gained more speed with calls for bans on plastic bags, is not a concern of this study. Atmospheric protection, caused about by concerns and actions taken regarding blowing agents used to produce foamed plastics. This concern has taken on greater importance more recently because of global warming. Because of concerns over the earth's ozone layer and global warming, chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) foam blowing agents were banned, and their first group of replacements, hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), are also scheduled for phase-out over the near future, with a total ban by 2030. The most important CFC-replacement foam blowing agent, HCFC-141b, has been banned since 2003. HFCs, the nonchlorine-containing compounds that were thought to be the final replacements for CFCs, have also come under attack, not as destroyers of the ozone layer but as "super greenhouse gases," many times more powerful than carbon dioxide in heating the atmosphere. Volatile hydrocarbon blowing agents are under increased control as air-polluting VOCs (volatile organic compounds)