Competition between lower priced resins and higher performance variants is set to intensify, as per a released report. The study estimates that the combined North American market for commodity thermoplastics and high performance resins will reach 30 billion pounds by 2008, up by 3.5% from 2003 levels. But most significantly, as technology improves, the growth rate of upgraded commodity thermoplastics is likely to overtake that of established higher performance resins.

The development of upgraded commodity thermoplastics is challenging established higher performance resins in a variety of packaging applications. For example, the projected average annual growth rate (AAGR) for high performance products is 3.3%. This is slightly lower than that for Commodity thermoplastics (CTPs) which is pegegd at 3.5%. By 2008, use of CTPs at nearly 18 million pounds, will exceed high-performance resins (usage pegged at 12.6 million pounds) in high performance applications by 42%. Commodity thermoplastics (CTPs) include: LLDPE, LDPE, HDPE, polypropylene, PVC, and polystyrene/HIPS. Of this total market, HDPE is used more extensively and will continue to dominate the market with a 28% share.

These materials are increasingly being used in a number of innovative packaging applications. New products are being developed to service the growing demand for versatile, cost efficient and environmentally sensitive packaging material. For example, a new range of products featuring Noryl PKN (PPO/polystyrene alloy) resin has been launched for the microwave packaging industry. Manufacturer GE Plastics believes that among all of the resins currently available, including PS, CPET, and PP, Noryl PKN4766 resin offers the best combination of transparency, micro waveability and low system cost. GE Plastics claims that the material offers a wide range of benefits including increased stiffness at higher temperatures. This can help reduce the risk of hot food spills, a common problem with ordinary polypropylene (PP) based materials.

High-performance resins (HPRs) include

	ABS, nylon, PET, PBT, polycarbonates, other engineering thermoplastics (ETPs)
	Polymer alloys/blends (PC/ABS, PPO/HIPS, PPO/nylon, PC/PBT)
	Styrene block copolymers (SBCs), styrene maleic anhydride (SMA)
	Tthermoset polyesters, polyurethanes, phenolic resins
	TPOs, COPEs, TPUs

PET dominates this market with a current share of 44.5% of the total and will continue to do so even in 2008. Polypropylene, PET, HDPE, nylon and polystyrenes will show the highest growth rates whereas PVC, polyurethanes and ABS are forecasted to have lower growth rates.

The competition between commodity thermoplastics and high-performance resins pervades the entire plastics industry. There are several key applications in which these materials directly compete in a market of over 24lbs billion. These markets relate to those applications in which there is viable competition between these materials. Rigid food packaging, flexible food packaging and automotive markets comprise the leading applications accounting for over 70% of the total volume.

The report, from Business Communications Company, was commissioned to analyse the growing competition in this sector. It was felt that there was a paucity of information on this particular area of packaging and that a quantitative assessment of the current situation was needed.
(extracted from RP-236 Upgraded Commodity and Engineering Resins: The Competitive Scenario)