Thermoplastic Elastomers: Brisk Sales & Rapid Development - POLYMERS

Thermoplastic Elastomers: Brisk Sales & Rapid Development

By Zhu Yifan

In 2016, global demand for rubber raw materials amounted to 27.13 million tons, including 12.50 million tons of natural rubber and 14.63 million tons of synthetic rubbers. It is expected to reach 28.047 million tons in 2017, including 12.87 million tons of natural rubber and 15.177 million tons of synthetic rubbers. China consumed 13.298 million tons of rubber in 2016, including 4.72 million tons of natural rubber and 8.578 million tons of synthetic rubbers. China currently imports over 80% of its natural rubber consumption.
Production of traditional rubbers is energy intensive, consumes seemingly excessive raw materials and produces a lot of pollution. Thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) have excellent properties resembling traditional rubbers, such as high elasticity, ageing resistance and oil resistance, and have special features of plastics such as convenience of processing and extensive processing forms. Moreover, they also have advantages of short process flow, low processing energy consumption, scrap recycling and excellent performance. Using TPE to replace traditional rubbers is an important approach for achieving sustainable development in the rubber industry. Major TPE varieties include SBC, TPO, TPU and TPEE.
The global TPE market has become more and more mature in recent years. Global consumption of TPE is likely to reach 4.64 million tons in 2017 and 6.10 million tons in 2022. China is experiencing one of the most rapid growth rates of TPE demand, which will still be brisk in next few years – average annual growth of consumption is expected to be around 8%.

SBC
Major SBC varieties include SBS, SIS, SEBS and SEPS. The capacity of SBC in the world was 2.68 million t/a in 2016 and the consumption was around 2.07 million tons. Annual growth of global SBC demand could reach 3.8% in the next few years.
In 2014, China consumed 758 kt of SBC; that increased to 785 kt in 2015 and is reasonably hoped to reach 900 kt in 2019. Surplus capacity will gradually be employed. Consumption of SBC in China is mainly in shoemaking, asphalt modification and polymer modification. Before 2016, shoemaking always held first place in the SBC consumption. Consumption in shoemaking will decline constantly in the next few years, while the proportion consumed in asphalt modification and polymer modification will go up. The major SBC variety in the Chinese market today is SBS. SBC varieties will be enriched in future and the output of SEBS will increase rapidly.

TPO
   The main TPO varieties are POE (ethylene/α-olefin copolymerized) and TPV (dynamic vulcanized). The consumption of TPO in the world is around 1.70 million tons a year.
   Annual demand for POE in China is 200-300 kt. The automobile industry accounts for 68% of the total. The main POE production methods used today include the insite solution polymerization process and the Exxpol high-pressure polymerization process. China has not yet achieved commercial production of POE, and domestic POE demand is totally satisfied by import.
   TPV has advantages of excellent processing behavior, environment friendliness, low specific gravity and wide application temperature range. It can be used to produce car components, medical capsules, electric wire/cable cladding materials and construction sealing strips. Both the supply and the demand of TPV in China have increased rapidly in the past decade, with the number of producers reaching 20-30. TPV is mainly used in the automobile industry. The market volume of vehicle-use TPV in China already exceeds RMB100 million and the CAGR is 10.9%. It is expected that the market volume will reach over RMB260 million in 2024. With technical progress, TPV will also gain more applications in other sectors (such as medical bottle closures).

TPU
   Global TPU capacity is around 1.959 million t/a, while demand is around 1.00 million tons.
   TPU consumption in China has increased steadily. Demand is brisk, reaching 400-500 kt. There is a huge market space for TPU to be used in films, shoe materials, impellers, pipes, adhesives and synthetic leather. China’s output of TPU films was around 30 kt in 2015, and output growth is expected to stay over 10% in the future. The main applications of TPU films include shoe materials, waterproof moisture permeable fabrics and high-grade handbags. Around 39% is consumed in making shoe materials. With extended TPU applications, the proportion used in shoemaking will become a little lower.
   The number of TPU patents has increased substantially since 2013. By the end of 2016, the number of TPU related patent applications reached 1 053. The future development of TPU technology will be focused mainly on improving heat resistance, developing spinning PU fiber TPU chips, increasing the melt-spun PU fiber proportion, strengthening bio-based TPU research and expanding medical uses.

TPEE
TPEE is a high-performance thermoplastic elastomer developed in recent years. Global consumption of TPEE is around 300 kt. Around 35% of TPEE is used in industrial rubber products such as rubber hoses and rubber belts. Twenty percent is used in car components. The balance is used in household electric appliances such as muffling gears and telephone encoder cards. Apparent consumption of TPEE in China is around 25 kt. Governing factors for TPEE production processes are rather complicated. Reaction conditions for its esterification process are the tough point in TPEE synthesis. One important development direction in the TPEE sector is medical TPEE. Medical TPEE features low toxicity, great transparency, convenient processing and ease of sterilization.