Expandable polystyrene (EPS) is a rigid and tough cellular form of polystyrene. EPS has numerous applications due to its beneficial properties, such as technical versatility, light weight, durability, thermal insulation and shock absorption characteristics, high compressive strength and resistance to moisture, which enable to manufacture cost effective and high performance products. Construction and packaging industries are the key application areas for EPS.
The world annual EPS capacity surpassed 8.87 million tonnes in 2012. Asia accounts for the lion’s share of the global EPS capacity – around 66.6%. It is followed by Europe.
Loyal Group, Wuxi Xingda Group, BASF, INEOS Styrenics, Taita Chemical, Ming Dih Group Corp, Jiangsu Nijiaxiang Chemical Co. and Synthos SA are among the leading companies operating in the world EPS market.
The steady growth of the world EPS market was interrupted in 2009 by the global financial crisis. However, as early as 2011 the market started to gather pace. The worldwide EPS production grew by just over 200,000 tonnes y-o-y to go beyond 6.3 million tonnes in 2012.
Asia is an unrivalled market leader in terms of both production and consumption of EPS. The region’s EPS production and consumption volumes were estimated at more than 3.87 million tonnes and 3.1 million tonnes, respectively, in 2012.
China, Germany, South Korea, the USA, Taiwan and Mexico are the top five EPS manufacturing countries. China’s EPS production exceeded 2.9 million tonnes in 2012.
The global EPS foreign trade was worth over USD 4.2 billion in 2011. Europe is the world’s leading EPS exporter and importer. The EPS imports prevail over exports in the region.
The worldwide EPS production is primed to follow an upward trend to climb to 7.5 million tonnes in 2015. The EPS market growth will be driven by the constantly rising demand for the product in tandem with multiple capacity expansions across the world.