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Essentially three major application
segments of plastics require flame retardancy. These are: housing
for consumer electronics and business machines, printed circuit
boards, wire & cable. Currently, it is estimated that the global
plastics industry uses over 1 million tonnes of flame retardants,
almost equally divided in the three major regions of North America,
Europe and Asia.
Production of consumer electronics having shifted
base to Asia, it is expected that the demand of flame retardants
in Asia will be greater compared to that of North America and Europe.
It is therefore not surprising that share of flame retardants in
Asia would grow to almost 50% in the next few years. The major market
of flame retardants would be Asia and all the manufacturers would
have to focus on this region. The Asian region includes Japan with
almost 20% share of flame retardants until recently. The manufacturing
of consumer electronics is spreading to other Asian countries besides
Japan, hence consumption is expected to go down in Japan.
Flame retardants have two major regulation requirements.
Different countries have different stipulations of flame retardancy.
The types of flame retardants are governed by the regulations of
the countries where products like consumer electronics are marketed.
Besides, the environmental issues of halogenated flame retardants
have compelled manufacturers to seek for newer types of non halogen
based flame retardants. These new products are more expensive and
are not as effective whan compared to the halogen based products.
Higher cost leads to slower acceptance, adversely affecting the
growth of flame retardants. On the other hand, increased awareness
on safety in the Asian region and better standard of living would
increase the demand for flame retardants.
It is therefore expected that flame retardants
would grow along with other additives at the average rate of approximately
about 3%. Among flame retardants, the halogenated products will
continue to have larger volumes but the non halogenated additives
like organophosphorous or melamine types, etc are expected to increase
their presence in the next few years.
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