Industry Insights
Positive outlook and favorable regulations are expected to have a positive impact on the overall emulsion polymer market. Increase in awareness regarding environmental pollutions and supporting norms and regulations against hazardous emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is expected to drive the global market. Coatings manufacturers are now forced to coherent paints and coatings which has minimum to zero VOCs content which led to start of emulsion polymerization in the global platform. Using this process in these applications reduces viscosity leading to production of polymers with high molecular weights which can be changed into composition and morphology as desired. Growing infrastructure spending in emerging countries is expected to increase the demand for paints and coatings in the next few years.
Mandatory use of emulsion polymer in coatings and paints due to strict regulation norms from the government is expected to have a positive influence in the overall market. Growth of paper & paper board industry coupled with increase in demand for adhesives from end-use industries is expected to drive the overall market growth over the forecast period. Volatility of raw material prices is expected to hinder the market growth and emulsion polymer manufacturers globally are investing on improving the contents to reduce VOCs in the polymer. Shift of trend to bio-based emulsion polymers is expected to have a positive impact on the market growth in the next few years. Threat of substitute material is expected to be a major challenge for the emulsion polymer market growth. Frequent mergers & acquisition are witnessed where major market occupants such as BASF and Dow Chemicals were seen to acquire smaller companies and the overall market is moving towards consolidation.
Product Insights
Acrylics emerged as the leading product market owing to its immediate drying and water resistance capability. Awareness of health hazards related to high content VOCs is expected to act favorable to the overall market growth in the next few years as it has comparatively low VOCs content. Other emulsion polymer products include vinyl acetate polymers and styrene-butadiene latex. The overall emulsion polymer products market is expected to grow at a rapid pace in the next six years.
Application Insights
Paintings and coatings emerged as the leading application market owing to growth in construction spending in regional market. Re-dispersible emulsions and powders are used in modification of mortars, is also expected to act favorable to the painting and coatings emulsion polymers market. Other applications include adhesives, which are expected to be the fastest growing emulsion polymer application segment, and paper & paper boarding coatings.
Regional Insights
Presence of strong norms and environmental regulations in Europe had been favorable for this emulsion polymer regional market. Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing regional market owing to increasing infrastructure spending with the growing urbanization. Growing awareness about the adverse affects of VOCs is expected to have a positive impact on the overall emulsion polymer market. Asia Pacific regional market is expected to leave North America and Europe Regional market way behind in the terms of market share by 2020.
