Polyurethane volume in North America up 4.6%. (Market Focus).The Alliance for the Polyurethanes polyurethanes (pŏl'ēy  r`əthānz), group of plastics that may be either thermosetting or thermoplastic. Polyurethane can be made into both flexible and rigid foams. Industry (API (Application Programming Interface) A language and message format used by an application program to communicate with the operating system or some other control program such as a database management system (DBMS) or communications protocol. ) market survey of
the polyurethanes industry in North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. indicates polyurethanes
industry volume for 2000 was 6,373 million pounds. In the U.S., volume
was 5,548 million pounds, up from 5,327 million pounds in 1998. Canadian
volume was 546 million pounds, up from 497 million pounds in 1998.
Mexican volume was 279 million pounds. This is the first time that
Mexico data have been included in the survey.
The biennial biennial, plant requiring two years to complete its life cycle, as distinguished from an annual or a perennial. In the first year a biennial usually produces a rosette of leaves (e.g., the cabbage) and a fleshy root, which acts as a food reserve over the winter. survey addresses the current state of the entire industry, and was the result of more than 900 interviews conducted throughout North America. End-users, formulators and producers all participated in the survey. "The survey revealed that the industry experienced a 4.6% increase in volume in Canada and the U.S.," said Joanne Ulnick of Ducker Research, the marketing firm that conducted the survey. The 6,094 million pounds for the U.S. and Canada is approximately double the number of pounds consumed in 1989, when usage was first tracked. The report showed a great deal of consistency with its 1998 counterpart. "When the 1998 survey results were released," said Fran W. Lichtenberg, API Executive Director, "it predicted that total industry volume in the U.S. and Canada for 2000 would be 6,174 million pounds. That prediction was based on the growth rate in 1998. This year's survey shows that while the growth rate appears to have slowed, it has not slowed as drastically as many people feared." The report also showed that the top five polyurethane polyurethane Any of a class of very versatile polymers that are made into flexible and rigid foams, fibres, elastomers (elastic polymers), surface coatings, and adhesives. end-use applications remained unchanged from two years ago - construction, transportation, furniture, carpet cushion Cushion In the context of project financing, the extra amount of net cash flow remaining after expected debt service. cushion See call protection. and appliances. Flexible polyurethane foams Noun 1. polyurethane foam - a foam made by adding water to polyurethane plastics polyfoam polyurethan, polyurethane - any of various polymers containing the urethane radical; a wide variety of synthetic forms are made and used as adhesives or plastics or accounted for 40% of total polyurethane demand; rigid polyurethane foams represented 26.5%; coatings represented 9.6%; and elastomers represented 4%. These numbers are nearly identical to the numbers reported in 1998. Small end-use applications (less than 250 million pounds of polyurethane demand) continued to experience strong growth, and on a level similar to what was reported in 1998. Among the leaders were wheels and tires (17.1%), bedding (16.6%), and textiles and fibers (12.4%). Elastomers U.S. demand for polyurethane elastomers in 2000 was 221 million pounds, up 6.8% from the 207 million pounds reported in 1998. Of that total, 41 million pounds went into transportation applications, 25 million pounds into industrial wheels and tires and 12 million pounds into in-line skate skate, fish: see ray. skate Any of nine genera (suborder Rajoidea) of rounded to diamond-shaped rays. These bottom-dwellers are found from tropical to near-Arctic waters and from the shallows to depths of more than 9,000 ft (2,700 m). wheels. Shoe soles are the primary application for polyurethane elastomers in footwear (28 million pounds). The annual amount of elastomer elastomer (ĭlăs`təmər), substance having to some extent the elastic properties of natural rubber. The term is sometimes used technically to distinguish synthetic rubbers and rubberlike plastics from natural rubber. demand in this area is influenced by design trends. Material requirements for shoe soles include abrasion abrasion /abra·sion/ (ah-bra´zhun) 1. a rubbing or scraping off through unusual or abnormal action; see also planing. 2. a rubbed or scraped area on skin or mucous membrane. and chemical resistance, making PU elastomers an ideal choice.
2000 vs. 1998: U.S. polyurethane demand by top end-uses
1998 2000
Millions of pounds
Construction 1,469 1,380
Transportation 1,328 1,197
Furniture 544 515
Carpet cushion 468 513
Appliance 283 265
Packaging 243 234
Bedding 238 205
Textiles and fibers 199 177
Tanks and pipes 142 138
Foundry 112 104
Marine 78 70
Note: Table made from bar graph.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion