Big gains forecast for global automotive plastic market: report

Spurred by rising disposable incomes and continuously changing lifestyles, the increasing production of cars and commercial vehicles will grow the global automotive plastic market at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.91% from now until 2023, a new report says.

“The demand for automotive plastics is witnessing a continuous rise as automakers continue to increase their focus towards enhancing the fuel efficiency of vehicles,” Rachel Thompson, senior manager with Research and Market, said in the company’s new report, entitled Global Automotive Plastic Market – Forecasts from 2018 to 2023. “Various moves by many governments worldwide have also been in this direction. For instance, Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards in the United States have been successful in nearly doubling the fuel efficiency of cars and trucks from what was 40 years ago.”

According to a data from the U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the fuel efficiency of U.S. built cars, manufactured in line with CAFE standards, increased from 20 mpg in 1978 to 36.5 mpg in 2014. “For the same period, the fuel efficiency of cars operating pre-CAFE gas guzzlers, the fuel economy increased from 18 mpg to 34.1 mpg,” Thompson said. “Similarly, the fuel efficiency of U.S. built light trucks, manufactured in line with CAFE standards, increased from 18.2 mpg in 1979 to 26.4 mpg in 2014 and for the same period, the fuel efficiency of light trucks operating pre-CAFE gas guzzlers, the fuel economy increased from 17.2 mpg to 26.3 mpg. Clearly, the government has been making efforts to increase the fuel efficiency of vehicles in order to reduce emissions from them which affect the environmental health.”

Geographically, Thompson noted, the global automotive plastic market is segmented as North America, South America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific. “North America and Europe accounted for a significantly large market share in 2017 owing to increasing production of vehicles in these regions,” she said. “Various automakers are shifting their production base to Mexico on account of cheap labour and favourable business environment in this region.” Asia Pacific holds a leading position in this market and the market in this region is anticipated to show an impressive growth over the forecast period, she noted. “The growth of the market in this region will majorly be attributed to rising production of autonomous cars in this region on account of increasing investments by many industry players in to facility expansion in countries like China, India and Japan,” Thompson said.

For more on Research and Market’s Global Automotive Plastic Market – Forecasts from 2018 to 2023 report, click on this link.