Overviews of the radiation curing markets in the Americas and Asia-Pacific Free

Overviews of the radiation curing markets in the Americas and Asia-Pacific

Keywords: Radiation, Curing, USA, Asia

IAL Consultants has completed its study of the global radiation curing market by publishing two further overview of the markets in The Americas (January 2002)and Asia Pacific (April 2002). The first report in this current series was an Overview of the European radiation curing market (March 2001). These two new reports draw on the extensive database, which IAL has developed in the course of over 20 years of research into this industry. They have been compiled from a comprehensive programmes of interviews with key industry executives drawn from the principal radiation curing sectors together with their suppliers.

These reports are presented in a common format, which includes:

• main chemical raw material types;

• formulated products;

• equipment manufacturers;

• raw material and formulated product suppliers.

The Americas

Total demand for the main curable chemicals (monomers,oligomers and photoinitiators) used in radiation curing systems of all kinds– UV, EB and cationic has been estimated at a combined total of 57,060 tonnes (126 million lbs) in 2001. North America accounted for 50,460 tonnes (111 million lbs) of the total for The Americas region. Brazil accounted for 94.5 per cent of the South American raw material market. The market for radiation-curable formulations has been estimated at 89,170 tonnes (196 million lbs) with the following breakdown by sector (Table I):

The market is broken down into 11 countries (Argentina,Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, USA, Venezuela and others) for each of the main applications set out in the previous table. North America accounted for 86.5 per cent of the total UV formulated market in The Americas and Brazil dominates the South American market with 78.3 per cent in 2001.

Table I Radcure market for UV curing systems by application and region (%)

In North America, the main opportunities for radiation curing will be hard industrial UV coatings (especially for both wood and plastics), packaging (especially UV flexography and EB technology), UV powder coatings and SMC UV coatings.

With the exception of Brazil, UV technology in South America is still developing. In Brazil, medium term growth is expected in telecommunications, electronics, automotive and aerospace coatings. Argentina is forecast to survive its economic difficulties, provided the US banks maintain their support.

Asia-Pacific

In 2001, the Asia Pacific market for raw materials accounted for 60,060 tonnes and 78,963 tonnes of formulated products. By 2006,the formulated product market is forecast to grow to 115,851 tonnes, of which China will have a 28 per cent market share. The market by major application is presented in Table I above.

A breakdown by 13 countries (Australia, China, India,Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan,Thailand, Vietnam and others) is given for the each of the main applications.

The dynamic growth in Chinese production of UV raw materials and formulated products could even dampen growth of UV technology in neighbouring countries. This is due to the low labour costs and high foreign investment in China and will apply to both commodity and niche products. By joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and so increasing market access,China will become an even more attractive market for UV and possibly, EB technology.

Main opportunities for UV acrylate systems will be in South East Asia region rather than in the North Asia region, as in the latter, unsaturated polyester has a strong tradition both in wood and opto-electronic coatings.

In Japan UV gravure inks will continue to be an important sector and the continued development of digital printing will present further opportunities for UV ink jet.

North Asia will continue to dominate in terms of opto-electronic coatings (photoresists, optical fibre and LCD coatings), hard protective UV coatings used with precision injection moulding (mobile phones,CDs and DVDs etc.), wood and wood substitute coatings.

Each report is now available at a price of $2,500 (two thousand five hundred US dollars), A 20 per cent discount is offered if both reports are purchased

Details available from: IAL Consultants. Tel: +44 20 8832 7780; Fax: +44 20 8566 4931; E-mail: cathy.galbraith@brg.co.uk;Web site: ialconsultants.com