The current worth of the global polymer foams market (in 2012) was US$82.6 bln and is estimated to reach US$131.1 bln by 2018, growing at a CAGR of 7.7% from 2013 to 2018. The high demand across industries such as automotive, building & construction and packaging will increase the overall polymer foam consumption, as per MarketsandMarkets.
Polymer foam types are significantly penetrating their applications market. They have different characteristics as per the manufacturing and their application requirement in the end products. The Asian market is expected to dominate with its growing demand for foams in different applications especially building & construction. The Western European and North American markets are expected to show a rising growth in the next five years with allied industries expected to stabilize the overall business need in respective regions. Polyolefin foams are expected to penetrate the global market with the highest growth within competitive foams available in the market. Polyurethane foams are dominant in consumption and revenue made, reasoned by its optimal cost to performance factor. Asia-Pacific is the largest region, both in terms of volume and value, followed by Western Europe and North America. U.S., Germany, U.K., Brazil, Russia, China, and India are expected
to persist as successful foam markets. The major players in the global polymer foam market are Armacell LLC (Germany), Adeplast S.A. (Romania), BASF SE (Germany), British Vita Foams plc (U.K.), Carpenter Co. (U.S.), INEOS Styrenics (Switzerland), JSP Corp (Japan), Recticel S.A. (Belgium), Rogers Corp (U.S.) and Wood bridge Foam Partner (U.S.). Eastern and Central European nations, emerging South-East Asian and nations that host the Olympics and other events would supplement the growth of polymer foams. An increase in auto sales, proposals for improvement of infrastructure and rising housing market in emerging economies will drive the polymer foams market.