Demand is growing around the world for plastics to be made with varying physical and chemical characteristics which can be tailored to specific end-uses.

Additives are added to plastics in various combinations in order to improve impact strength, clarity, resistance to chemicals, heat and weather, and color preservation. They include, among others, plasticizers, flame retardants, colorants, impact modifiers, antimicrobials and UV stabilizers.

The sector is highly fragmented and market competition is quite high. As a result, companies are continuing to invest in developing and introducing new products that offer enhanced quality and performance as they seek to boost portfolios and meet customers’ differing requirements.

Engineering Plastics in Automotive Applications

One major area of growth for plastics and additives is the automotive sector where the trend for light weighting to meet stringent fuel emission targets has seen plastic components increasingly replace their heavier metal counterparts.

German specialty chemicals producer Lanxess expects global demand for engineering plastics in automotive applications to grow by an annual 7% in the period 2015-2020. This growth is being driven by rising car production and the trend towards more fuel-efficient vehicles. Depending on the component, Lanxess said a part designed with high-performance plastics can weigh 10-50% less than a metal version

Responding to rising demand, the company has expanded its plastics compounding capacity in the US and Brazil. About $15 million was spent on a second line in Gastonia, North Carolina, USA, which started production in December 2015, doubling capacity to 40,000 t/y.

A 20,000 t/y plant in Porto Feliz, Brazil, costing around €20 million, was also inaugurated in April 2014.

In both these plants, Lanxess mixes and refines polyamide (PA) and polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) with additives and glass fiber to make its Durethan and Pocan high-performance plastics which are used primarily in cars.

In the coming years, Lanxess plans to invest a further €50-100 million to grow its high-performance plastics business.

“With the investments, we will be further balancing the capacities in our polyamide value chain and driving the globalization of our engineering plastics business,” says Michael Zobel, head of Lanxess’ High Performance Materials business unit.

LED Light Sources

A current focus in the automotive industry is light emitting diodes (LEDs). LEDs are becoming an important source of lighting worldwide as their energy consumption is significantly lower than that of incandescent and discharge lamps, and their service life is longer.

They are increasingly being incorporated in car headlamps and rear lighting clusters, and there is growing potential for using LEDs in buildings, streetlamps and electronic display backlighting, among other applications.

Lanxess’ new polyester grade based on PET, Pocan TP 555-001, has been developed for housings, sockets and other components for LEDs. The plastic contains special additives and is reinforced with glass fibers to give an unusually high light reflection, as well as high heat stability and strong resistance to yellowing/ageing.

“This high-tech material represents a new, growing material family that is our response to the global trend in LED light sources. It is designed as an economical alternative to specialty polyamides, materials frequently used to make components such as LED housings thanks to their high melting point,” explains Matthias Bienmüller, Lanxess’ head of Pocan product development.

He adds: “We are at a very advanced stage in developing a polyester-based material grade that can withstand the even higher temperatures of reflow soldering than vapor phase soldering and still display outstanding LED light reflection.”

Germany’s Evonik launched Vestamid HTplus M8000 in late 2015, a new additive partially based on the castor oil plant. The material is the key base ingredient in a compound for making products such as high-performance LEDs highly temperature resistant and light-stable.

In smartphones, Vestamid HTplus M8000 provides the mechanical integrity required for the moveable lens module units, allowing a higher pixel count that increases the camera’s image resolution. The material was also specially developed for thin-wall applications in the electronics industry.

Covestro, formerly Bayer MaterialScience, has also been developing a range of materials for LED lighting, mostly based on its Makrolon PC. It says there has been significant development of injection mouldable thermally conductive polymers in the last few years for electronic and lighting manufacturers. These plastics generally use large percentages of additives to achieve their high thermal conductivity.

Rising Global Demand for Plastics Additives

According to US market analyst BCC Research, the global plastics additives market was worth $48.2 billion in 2015. The consultancy predicts the market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5% over the next five years, from a value of nearly $50.6 billion in 2016 to nearly $50.6 billion in 2021.

Rising populations, rapid urbanization and expanding incomes are contributing to higher plastic consumption, particularly in Asia where the presence of huge untapped market segments will continue to open up opportunities.

Packaging applications in emerging economies as a result of the rapid urbanization and rising demand from the consumer goods and food industries, as well as the increasing use of additives for agricultural and medical applications are expected to offer budding opportunities.

While rising living standards makes Asia-Pacific the leading market for additives, elsewhere in the world – notably in Europe and the US – demand will be affected by strict environmental regulations.

For example, companies are developing phthalate-free plasticizers and alternatives to brominated flame retardants to meet increasingly stringent regulatory requirements.

Rhein Chemie Additives, one of Lanxess’ business units, says its plasticizers portfolio is already entirely phthalate-free and it continues to work on developing its phosphorus-based non-halogenated flame retardants Levagard and Disflamoll for rigid and soft PU applications.

“With its network of phosphorus facilities – Phosphorus-Verbund – in Germany and France, Lanxess is strongly placed to further develop its leading position in the phosphorus-based flame retardants market,” says Karsten Job, head of the plastic additives business at Rhein Chemie Additives.

He adds that the company’s Stabaxol hydrolysis stabilizers are also playing an important part in efforts to increase the use of bio-based polymers which are subject to degradation by hydrolysis, such as polylactic acid (PLA) or polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) in durable goods.

BCC Research says plastics additives will continue to gain in importance in the future, not only because of the steadily rising technical standards required of plastics, but also because customers are under increasing pressure to keep on improving productivity.