Methyl methacrylate overview Transcript
Methyl methacrylate also known as MMA is a versatile chemical with applications in many industries from autoelectronics to the automotive sector. MMA can be used to produce polymethyl methacrylate or PMMA, and acrylate resins for coatings and emulsions. Asia currently dominates the world’s MMA production, this region also represents the fastest growing market for MMA.
Use in new electronic applications such as liquid crystal display televisions backlit by light emitting diodes (LED) has significantly expanded and is expected to be a major growth driver for the MMA market in the next couple of years.
Since global supplies are short several producers are expanding capacities and adding new plants. The Asian market largely trades on a spot basis but some bulk cargoes are sold on a spot-related contract formula. MMA prices are driven by supply and demand and feedstock prices like butane, methanol, acrylonitrile and acetone.