Source：China Plastics News

Headquartered in Germany, Ceresana Research Group said thermoplastic elastomer is increasingly edging out other plastic materials.

TPE is mainly used in automotive industry, however, new application fields are constantly emerging.

Ceresana Research indicated the global sales of TPE reached $ 16.7 billion in 2014. It is predicted that the figure will grow by, on average, 4.7% p.a. until 2022.

China, the US, Japan and Germany are the four largest TPE consumers, which accounted for 63% of the total global demand for TPE in 2014.

Ceresana predicted the fastest-growing demand for TPE will be South America and the Asia-Pacific region, especially China, India and Brazil. The consumption of TPE in North America and Western Europe will maintain annual growth of at least 2% p.a.in the future.

Ceresana Research expressed the growing demand in Asia is particularly evident that there are a number of new producers entering the market. The production of China’s TPE increased by 600,000 tons over the past eight years.

The Research Group highlighted in the report that the global automotive industry accounts for more than 40% of the total product consumption in TPE. It is obvious that the growth of TPE can benefit from the development of automotive industry.

The company predicted that the demand for TPE will also increase in other industries, such as machine building and medical technology.