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Ceresana Consulting has recently released a global plastic masterbatch market report. The report shows that in 2016, the global consumption of plastic masterbatch was more than 4 million tons, of which the masterbatch market in the Asia-Pacific region accounted for 40% of the global masterbatch market demand, and one-third of the global masterbatch market's revenue also came from Asia-Pacific area.

In addition, 24% of the global masterbatch revenue comes from North America, and 19% comes from Western Europe.

Ceresana expects that by 2024, the global masterbatch market will grow at a rate of 3.7% per year. The report studied white masterbatch, black masterbatch, colored masterbatch, and additives. Color masterbatch is mainly used for plastic dyeing, and additives can improve the properties of plastics.

Many different types of additives can also be integrated together, such as stabilizers, antioxidants, antistatic agents, and flame retardants.

The global color masterbatch market will grow at a 3.7% annual rate

The demand for black and white masterbatch is largest.

The most important type of masterbatch in 2016 was white masterbatch, followed by color masterbatch, including inorganic pigment dispersions and organic pigment dispersions. In the past eight years, the global market demand for white masterbatch has increased at a rate of 2.2% per year. Titanium dioxide is the most important product of white masterbatch. The plastics industry needs to tint toys, electronic equipment, automotive parts, home products, plastic films and other products, so the demand for titanium dioxide is relatively large. In addition, titanium dioxide absorbs UV radiation, which eliminates the discoloration of colored products due to sun exposure.

Black masterbatch is mainly derived from carbon black additives. Carbon black is commonly used in conductive packaging, films, fibers, windows, tubes, and cables. The current common end product is garbage bag. Carbon black as a color additive has advantages in many plastic applications, especially for engineering polymers. Its color is difficult to change and it is difficult to fade even in extremely harsh outdoor environments.

Plastic applications are everywhere

The most important applications for masterbatches in plastics are packaging, construction, transportation, electrical and electronic and industrial products. In 2016, the use of masterbatch in packaging accounted for 31% of the global masterbatch demand in 2016. The second largest market for masterbatch applications is the construction industry, followed by industrial products and transportation.

In the packaging field, flexible packaging such as films, bags, and such “packages” include all color masterbatches for soft plastic packaging, such as films and bags, as well as hard packaging such as yogurt cups, cans, bottles, and lids. It is expected that the application of masterbatch in transportation will increase at a rate of 3.1% per year between 2016 and 2024, with the most potential application area being aerospace.