CLEVELAND - Global demand for emulsion polymers is forecast to advance 4.6% per year to 12.6 million metric tons in 2018, driven by accelerating growth in construction spending, manufacturing output, and paper and paperboard production. In particular, rebounding construction activity in North America and Western Europe - both intensive regional consumers of emulsions - will propel market advances. Acrylics will remain the largest and fastest growing emulsion polymer type through 2018, when they will comprise 40% of the global market. These and other trends are presented in World Emulsion Polymers, a new study from The Freedonia Group Inc., a Cleveland-based market research firm.

“The Asia/Pacific region will remain the largest regional consumer of emulsion polymers, bolstered by growth in the massive Chinese market,” notes analyst Carolyn Zulandt. “While India and Malaysia are forecast to see the fastest annual gains of any major market through 2018.” In India, double-digit annual growth in the paint and coatings market will underpin advances, spurred by expanding use of water-based packaging and industrial coatings, as well as the increasing penetration of latex paints in rural markets as per-capita incomes rise. Demand in Malaysia will be boosted by robust growth in the country’s huge export-oriented latex gloves industry, as well as by the increased substitution of nitrile gloves for natural latex types worldwide.