Medical plastics demand to expand at 5%, highest growth rates in TPEs

The U.S. medical plastics market is expected to reach almost 3.5 billion lb of demand by the end of 2010 and will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 5%, consuming about 4.4 billion lb, by 2015. Those findings from BCC Research's new report "Medical Plastics", which focuses on medical plastics converted via injection molding, extrusion, film casting, solvent casting, blow molding, and thermoforming.

The report notes that commodity thermoplastics dominate the market with a little more than 55% of total volume. This portion of the sector's demand is estimated at nearly 2 billion lb in 2010 and should increase at a CAGR of 4.8% to reach 2.5 billion by in 2015.

Thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs), engineering resins, and thermosets will show the most significant growth rates over the next 5 years, but ultimately will still only constitute about 20% of total volume. Of these, TPEs will experience the highest CAGR of 6.2%, climbing from 68 million lb in 2010 to 92 million lb in 2015.

In addition to new types of medical devices; legislative/regulatory and environmental issues; and sterilization techniques, the medical device industry will be driven by concern over former stalwart materials like polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polycarbonate (