Engineering Plastics
Growth and sustainability with a new breed of plastics Engineering plastics suit the design and structural innovation in a variety of industries since they are high-performance materials with greater features than traditional materials and commodity plastics, says Angelica Buan in this report.
Toray Plastics has expanded its ABS resin facility in Malaysia
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SEPTEMBER 2021
Bullish market for engineering plastics The engineering plastics market is massive, and it has remained unaffected despite the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Indeed, market forecasts for engineering plastics remain bullish. According to a Mordor Intelligence report, adoption of these high-performance polymers is expected to rise in major industries such as automotive, aerospace, building and construction, mechanical, and medical. The applications will be driving a market that is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 6% from this year to 2026. As well, as the light weight trend spreads across major industries, engineering plastics will effectively replace traditional materials. In today’s era, comparing engineering plastics with commodity plastics is like comparing oranges to apples. Engineering plastics outperform common plastics such as polystyrene (PS), PVC, polypropylene (PP), and polyethylene (PE) in terms of mechanical and thermal properties, and have largely replaced wood and metals in a variety of applications due to their excellent weight-to-strength ratio, ease of manufacture, design versatility, and other characteristics. Expansions on ABS growth A recent report by Global Industry Analysts cited that the global engineering plastic market will reach 24.6 million tonnes by 2026, up from 19 million tonnes in 2020. One of the segments examined in the report, acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), is expected to grow at a 4.4% CAGR and reach 10.4 million tonnes by the end of the forecast period. Meanwhile, Brandessence Market Research’s report says the ABS market will be valued at nearly US$47 billion by 2027. ABS is frequently utilised in electronic housings, automobile parts, consumer goods, pipe fittings, and toys, among other applications. Chemically and impact resistant, the opaque and amorphous thermoplastic has a low melting point. The material is relatively safe and has appropriate mechanical properties like toughness and rigidity. Citing the Brandessence Market Research report, the increasing adoption of ABS in the automotive sector, as well as in construction, electronics, and other industries, is a major factor driving the market forward. Having said the above, resin makers’ capacity expansion throughout this time has been both risky and strategic. Taking advantage of this market growth, Toray Plastics (Malaysia) Sdn Berhad (TPM) has commenced expanding its global production and distribution capacity of its Toyolac ABS resin transparent grade at its new facility in Penang, Malaysia. The new factory will increase production and distribution capacity by 75,000 tonnes/year to 425,000 tonnes/year. Toray Group currently produces 497,000 tonnes/year of ABS at its Chiba Plant in Japan. The company says it is expanding its global manufacturing, including its TPM plants, to increase sales in important Chinese and Southeast Asian markets, as well as meet increased demand in Europe, the US, and India.
