MOSCOW (MRC) -- Global EPDM (ethylene propylene-diene terpolymer) market is to grow at a CAGR of 6.67% over the period 2014-2019, as per Plastemart.
Based on application, the global EPDM market can be segmented into six: automotive, molded goods, building and construction, lubricant additives, plastic modification, and others. EPDM is widely used in the automotive sector to manufacture hoses, belts, and o-rings; and highly engineered seals for automobiles, windows, doors, and mass transit. Growth in the automotive sector is the main driver. The rapid growth of automobiles in developing countries is contributing to this market as EPDM is used in the manufacture of many components such as brake parts, radiators, tubes, and belts.
EPDM is a synthetic rubber composed of ethylene and propylene. It displays properties such as resistance to heat, weather, ozone, and polar substances, and is an excellent electrical insulator. It can be manufactured by three different processes: solution process, slurry process, and gas-phase process. EPDM is used in various applications in the automotive, molded goods, building and construction, lubricant additive, and plastic modification sectors.
Manufacturers are setting up bio-based EPDM production plants because of environmental concerns. Conventionally, EPDM is produced using petroleum-based raw materials such as ethylene and propylene. With the help of feedstock such as sugarcane, EPDM can be manufactured in an eco-friendly process. Lanxess has set up a bio-based EPDM production plant in Brazil that uses sugarcane as feedstock instead of ethylene. Brazilian automotive suppliers are using bio-based EPDM rubbers from Lanxess in window rubber seals.
As MRC wrote before, Dow Elastomers, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company, will soon break ground on its planned world-scale NORDEL EPDM facility in Plaquemine, La., which will utilize the company’s newest proprietary catalyst technology to enable products with high Mooney viscosity. The facility, which will service customers globally, is expected to come online in 2016 and will leverage Dow’s comprehensive investment plan to serve its downstream businesses through increased ethylene and propylene production in the US Gulf Coast and to connect the company's US operations into feedstock opportunities from increasing supplies of shale gas.
MRC