Although the debt crisis in Europe has intensified, the possibility of a global bottoming in the global economy has made the global economy chilly, but demand for engineering plastics, including polycarbonate (PC), in the consumer electronics and automotive sectors remains good. Emerging applications such as solar and electric vehicles are expanding, and the engineering plastics market will continue to grow rapidly in the future.

The IHS CMAI pointed out that factors such as declining raw material costs, abundant market supply, and seasonal demand sluggishness have caused the price of polycarbonate (PC) to decline since October. However, Charles Clay, president of SABIC Innovative Plastics, recently stated: “Overall, the current global engineering plastics market has performed well. In the major downstream durables industrial market, the demand for the consumer electronics industry has remained stable. Demand is also strong, but demand from the construction industry remains weak."

Cray said: "The global automotive industry continues to promote the lightweight strategy to the company's engineering plastics business has provided a sustained and stable growth momentum. Engineering plastics plays a key role in the lightweight car, more and more engineering plastics are being used in cars Production, as an alternative to heavy metals, will replace glass in the future.The lightweight trend in the automotive industry has expanded to the consumer electronics industry, and mobile phones, laptops and tablets are becoming increasingly lighter and smaller. The focus of the development is portability, which provides new opportunities for the development of engineering plastics."

Cray pointed out that the demand growth rate of the global engineering plastics market is consistent with the growth rate of GDP, and the demand from the medical and aerospace industries is expected to grow rapidly. For U.S. manufacturers and engineering plastics suppliers, emerging markets such as the solar and electric vehicle industries provide an opportunity for growth. On the whole, PC demand will increase at an average annual rate of 5% to 6%.

Recognizing this opportunity, SABIC Innovative Plastics is expanding its global PC capacity to meet customer demand growth. The company has already started a 260,000-ton/year PC unit in Saudi Jubail this year, and has announced that it will expand its Lexan brand PC resin and film compounding capacity in Nansha, Guangzhou, China and Shanghai. In addition, SABIC Innovative Plastics will also establish a joint venture with Sinopec Corp. to invest more than US$1 billion in Tianjin to build a new 260,000-ton/year PC unit, which is expected to be completed and put into operation in 2015. In Europe, the company has started a high-end engineering plastic sheet production line to meet the construction industry demand in the Bergen op Zoom region of the Netherlands.