TABLE OF CONTENTS The decision to use a new material is difficult and important. It has both technical and economic consequences, making it essential to consider:
the abundance or scarcity of the material and the process targeted
the cost
the actual penetration of the material category in the industrial area.
The goal of the following facts and figures concerning thermoplastics and composites is to help quickly clarify the real applications and the relative importance of the various families and processes. The figures are roughly estimated from professional or government studies and papers or news from technical reviews. These sources can indicate significantly different figures according to the methodology used (applications, whether or not the captive industry is taken into account, etc.).
Worldwide plastics consumption is of the order of 170 million tonnes annually in round figures, with a turnover of US$560 billion. Over the past five years, global plastics consumption has grown consistently by an average annual rate of 4%, comparable with steel and aluminium rates.
Table 2.1 and Figure 2.1 indicate the orders of magnitude of global plastics consumption.
| Million tonnes | % | |
|---|---|---|
| Commodity | 122 | 72 |
| Engineering | 8 9 | 5 |
| Composites | 6 8 | 3 5 |
| Speciality | <1 | <1 |
| TPE | 1.1 | <1 |
| Environment -friendly | <1 | <1 |
| Others | 30 | 18 |
| Total | 170 | 100 |
Worldwide plastic growth is estimated between 4% and 5.5% per annum for the next few years, leading to a worldwide consumption...
