The new World Plastic Pipe report from a leading consulting company projects that global demand of plastic pipes is expected to grow at 4% until 2007. According to Freedonia, plastics pipe sector continues to capture an increasing market share from conventional piping material.

Not only do plastic pipes offer the advantage of non-corrosion as compared to metal pipes, but they also help in meeting the increasing demands of health standards. Limiting metal content in potable water enhances the opportunity for replacing metal pipes with their plastics counterparts. In the last decade, some countries like Germany have seen copper pipes for potable water losing out their share to plastics pipes. The new regulations also show a shift in the preferred polymeric material as well as additives used in the manufacture of plastics pipes. PE pipes are finding an increasing application in potable water segment, growing at the expense of PVC pipes. Even in PVC pipes, lead stabilizer is being replaced by other types of heat stabilizers to ensure that the permissible limit of lead in PVC pipes gradually reduces from the existing 0.025 mg/l to less than 0.010mg/l. The European Commission has fixed 2013 as the deadline to achieve the maximum limit of 0.010mg/l of lead.

As expected, the Asian region, particularly China, is expected to grow fastest at about 8%. North America, Europe and Japan are expected to be either stagnant or show a growth of barely 2%. Growth in Europe will be determined by the level of progress of the geographic location. Eastern Europe as well as South Europe would have better growth opportunities while North Europe would remain stagnant. The growth of PE pipes is expected to be better than PVC in Europe, while PVC will continue to grow in the Asian region. Besides PVC, PE pipes would also gain in Asia. PE 100 is expected to grow faster compared to the lower pressure rating PE pipe.

The market of bigger sized plastics pipes is likely to grow faster as metal increasingly finds replacement in the pressure pipe sector. Plastic pipes with an estimated global demand of about 13 million tons is definitely gaining more than 45% share of the total pipe industry.