Growth in polyurethane is running at clearly above the growth level for the world economy, both in Europe and worldwide, which would suggest that the versatile material of PU is capable of substituting other materials – including other plastics – in a greater number of applications. This was one of the key messages brought home at the third international conference on PU mouldings held in Wiesbaden / Germany.

In 2000, demand for PU totalled 8.5m t worldwide, marking an increase of 6%; PU consumption has thus continued its steady and stable growth of the past 10 years, rising from some 5m t in 1990 to 8.5m t in 2000. Market experts are reckoning on a further increase to 10.8m t by the year 2005. These were the figures put forward in Wiesbaden by Dr. Wolfgang Reichmann, from Strategic Marketing in the Polyurethane business group of Bayer AG (D-51368 Leverkusen; www.bayer.de). With a share of 5% in overall plastics consumption, polyurethanes are already closing in on the engineering plastics, which account for 7%.

The main PU consumer markets are western Europe at 30%, NAFTA at 32% and Asia (including Japan) at 25%. Per-capita consumption in the NAFTA region is 6.6 kg – on a par with western Europe at 6.5 kg. The low per-capita consumption in eastern Europe (0.7 kg), Latin America (1.3 kg) and Asia, excluding Japan (0.8 kg) points to a pronounced backlog demand in those regions.

Germany is the biggest market in Europe, accounting for 20% of the PU consumed. Demand rose 4.5% here, to 570,000 t. Italy follows in second place, with 18%, while France, Great Britain with Ireland, Benelux, and Spain with Portugal each account for 10% of the demand for PU within Europe. In Europe, 72% of the PU consumed in 2000 went to the key sectors of furniture / mattresses (26%), automotive (16%), construction including cooling technology and insulation (26%), and shoes (4%). See graph.

Automotive industry
Despite a slowing in the growth of the automotive industry, the PU sector is also looking optimistically into the future in this branch too. It is setting its stakes on new technologies, greater added value through a higher quality (keyword: comfort in the passenger compartment) and additional potential for the substitution of other materials. Hence, thin-wall technology, which can be used to make front ends, fenders and lorry parts by the RIM process with the aid of new fillers, is currently experiencing an annual growth of some 5% worldwide and 10% in Europe in the automotive industry. The production of structural parts for the automotive interior, including door linings, parcel shelves and luggage compartment covers is also recording 10% growth. Added to this, PU is also benefiting from the trend towards lightweight construction. Apart from metals on car exteriors, PU is increasingly displacing thermoplastic materials too, on account of its lower fogging values in the car interior. The production of car seats, the biggest application in the car interior in tonnage terms, could be an attractive application over the next few years given the increasing requirements on comfort. An increase in bulk density is currently being discussed, for example.

Flexible foams
After the decline of previous years, the German furniture industry was able to halt the negative trend in 2000 with growth of 1%. Cheap imports from eastern Europe still remain a problem. The PU industry´s answer here is to engage in a quality offensive which, in turn, will permit greater added value. Innovative applications, such as polyurethane gels to ensure optimum, uniform distribution of a person´s weight on a mattress, will permit inroads to be made into the medical and orthopaedic field. In the year 2000, the flexible foam sector accounted for no less than about 27% of worldwide PU production. Four fifths of this went to furniture and mattresses.

Rigid foam
With the exception of Germany, the situation in the construction industry appears promising. The sector has grown 11% since 1995, with 3% of this growth being achieved in 2000 alone. In Germany, a low level of growth (+1%) is only expected as of 2002. Of the 2.2m t rigid PU foam consumed worldwide, 64% went into the construction sector and 36% was used for refrigerators, cooling appliances and technical insulation. The PU industry has great expectations of the statutory regulations governing energy saving. A new energy saving ordinance is expected in Germany in the course of this year.

PU specialities
Of the so-called “specialities”, some 370,000 t (about one third) go to the shoe industry. Although this sector has experienced a 3.5% decline, and even shrank by 6% in Germany, PU consumption for shoe soles grew by more than 10% worldwide. The reasons for this were growth motors like Asia, South America and Mexico, as well as the continued displacement of rubber, made possible by the improved processability of PU as well as properties such as a lower weight and a higher abrasion and chemical resistance.

With almost 200 participants, the organisers viewed the conference in Wiesbaden as a complete success. As representatives of the interests of a sector which is intending to exceed the 10-million-tonne mark in the year 2005, the FSK is also actively engaged in attracting junior staff. The association thus not only allowed students to attend the conference free of charge but also subsidised their travel and accommodation expenses. The profits from the event are being channelled into the innovation prize for 2002, for which the FSK will be inviting applications this year.