InterviewDow sees highest epoxy growth in Asia

05 June 2008 22:10  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--Global epoxy resins demand growth over the next few years will maintain a pace 1-2 percentage points above GDP growth, with the help of a thriving middle-class consumer base and infrastructure development in Asia, a Dow Chemical executive said on Thursday.

“Epoxy demand is actually driven by consumer demand for goods and services. Growth is driven by improvement of quality of life and spending power, it is not driven by one project like the Beijing Olympics,” said Patrick Ho, Dow’s vice president of epoxies and specialty products.

Asia was expected to lead the epoxy resins industry with growth 2-3 percentage points above GDP, while Europe was forecast at 1 point above GDP.

Demand growth in North America was expected to continue tracking GDP growth over the next 1-2 years, due to a lacklustre housing market, Ho said.

“We do take note of the fact that in the US, with the aging infrastructure, there needs to be significant investment in highways, but also bridges and flyovers," he said.

He added that the North American coatings industry continued to adopt epoxy resins for such coatings applications as food cans or pipelines.

In other parts of the world, particularly Asia, marine coatings and electronic laminates provided high growth areas for epoxy demand.

Ho said 80% of electronic laminate demand is in the Asian market. The laptop demand in the global market has slowed, but demand for mobile phones, electrical appliances and electronic boards for automotive applications has been increasing.

He cited a need for new epoxy resins formulations that would provide high-temperature electrical laminates for denser circuitry and laminates that could be used in environmentally friendly lead-free electronics.

Dow was also targeting wind energy as a key growth market for epoxy resins and had been successful at growing its position in Europe, Ho said.

 “With continued increases in energy costs in North America, the wind blade demand will increase substantially,” Ho said. “Blades are becoming bigger and bigger, so the quality of the epoxy system is becoming more critical.”

 “Dow has know how and strong on-the-ground support,” he added. “We expect to be one of the major players in this market segment.”

($1 = €0.65)

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