The global market for specialty films is projected to be worth $6.0 billion in 2013 and grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 6.0% until 2018, according to a brand new market report from Smithers Pira.
The Future of Specialty Films: Market Forecasts to 2018 offers key details about the drivers and trends behind this dynamic market, as well as market forecasts for the next five years. Based on expert research and analysis, a number of in-depth tables and figures reveal essential information about end-use and geographic markets for global specialty films.
Specialty films are not a homogenous market, as each film type has separate characteristics, functions and applications, including barrier protection, biodegradability, safety and protection. These various types of specialty films are all also at different stages of development and therefore exhibit different supply and demand dynamics, not to mention growth potential.
The study reports that barrier films dwarf all other specialty film types; accounting for half of total market tonnage in 2013. Despite being long-established and reaching market maturity in developed countries, barrier films still offer good growth prospects. The electronics sector looks set to show the biggest gains in terms of growth over the five year period to 2018, driven by new end-market product development and growing consumer demand for alternative solar cell technologies.
According to the new report, the US is currently the largest national market for specialty films, with a projected 19.3% volume share in 2013. Asia is the largest regional market with 32.9% of global consumption, followed by North America and Western Europe. Asia and South and Central America are the fastest growing regional specialty film markets, with India, China and Brazil as the largest growing countries.
However this is all set to change - China will to overtake the US as the world's largest specialty film consumer during the 2013-2018 period, according to Smithers Pira. The rest of the world is also forecast to show above average growth rates in the global specialty films market. As North America and Western Europe are relatively mature markets, they are forecast to show below average growth rates between 2013 and 2018.
