eresana: Research on the world market for expandable polystyrene

07.09.2021 09:59

Better building insulation is a key objective of the European Green Agreement. Real estate still consumes almost 40% of energy. That's why the EU Commission has called for a "renovation wave." In order to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, EU states will invest around 200 billion euros a year in the vibrant modernization of residential and public buildings by 2030. These energy efficiency initiatives are particularly benefiting manufacturers and processors of expandable polystyrene (EPS), the best-selling insulation material. According to Ceresana's latest research on the global EPS market, approximately 6.59 million tons will be consumed in 2020. The construction industry is the main consumer EPS is a lightweight, strong foam that can be molded into almost any shape and traded under brands such as Styrofoam or Airpop.

The versatile material consists primarily of air and expanded polystyrene, with flame retardants and additional additives, such as graphite. Although EPS can also be found in safety helmets and life jackets, in beverage cups, casting molds and numerous other applications, 53% of its spherical sales area is nevertheless accounted for by construction products. The construction industry uses this cost-effective insulating material primarily to insulate against heat, cold and noise - both in new housing construction and in the renovation of old buildings. EPS's competitors, meanwhile, are glass and rock wool, but increasingly also insulation materials based on renewable raw materials.

Growing packaging consumption

 Ambitious climate protection targets for the building sector exist in Japan and South Korea, for example. In the countries of Asia-Pacific and the Americas in particular, EPS is used not only for insulation materials but also on a large scale for packaging, for example for the transport of fresh fish or electronic products. Worldwide, packaging accounts for over 40 percent of EPS consumption. According to the current, fourth edition of Ceresana's EPS market report, in 2020, the Asia-Pacific region circularly accounted for 57 percent of global EPS consumption. On top of that, analysts are calling for above-average growth rates for China, even though the momentum of the construction sector there is cooling. Especially in emerging and developing countries, the per capita consumption of packaging made of EPS is increasing.

The investigation in the future:

Chapter 1 offers a presentation of the global market for Expandable Polystyrene - including forecasts up to 2030: EPS production and consumption volumes as well as import, export and generated revenue are given for the areas of Western and Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa.

Chapter 2 examines EPS market data for the most significant 25 countries, i.e., country-specific production and demand volumes, import and export figures, and revenue levels for each. The demand for EPS is further divided into the application areas: Box, construction, manufacturing as well as other applications.

Chapter 3 is a directory: Company profiles of the most essential EPS manufacturers, divided by contact details, sales, profit, product range, production facilities, production capacity and brief profile. Detailed profiles are provided by 47 fabricators, such as Alpek S.A.B. de C.V., BASF SE, Loyal Chemical Industrial Corp, Ming Dih Group Corp, SIBUR Holding PAO, Sunpor Kunststoff GmbH, Supreme Petrochem Ltd. (SPL), Synthos S.A. and Wuxi Xingda Group.


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