Polyolefin Elastomer Market Propelled by Solar, Auto Lightweighting, Monomaterial Packaging: Report

The global market for polyolefin elastomers and plastomers is forecast to grow at 7.4% per annum (CAGR) through to 2030 to a value approaching US$6.3 billion and volume of 3 million tonnes-plus according to a ground-breaking report released this month by MLT Analytics.

This impressive growth is set to be fueled by strong gains in solar panel encapsulation at the expense of ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) resin, supported by advances in impact modification of automotive polypropylene (PP) compounds, and sealant layers in flexible packaging.

“2021 was a breakout year for POE usage in solar module encapsulation,” says MLT Analytics CEO and co-founder Stephen Moore. “EVA supply constraints and resulting high prices, coupled with strong demand from the solar module sector in the second half of 2021 saw encapsulation sheet makers turn to POE to plug the supply gap. Now that POE has a stronger foothold, we expect it to make further gains accompanying increasing market penetration of bifacial solar modules, although POE is most likely to be used in conjunction with EVA rather than outright replacing it,” he adds.

Another key area to watch is sealant films for multilayer flexible packaging. “With the trend increasingly towards sustainable, monomaterial structures, lower sealing temperatures will become all the more important for converters and POPs can deliver on this performance requirement while realizing an airtight seal,” notes Moore.

Electric and autonomous vehicle adoption is also driving growth prospects for POE use as an impact modifier given the importance of lightweighting and the expectation that interiors of the future may utilize higher levels of PP. “Volume growth may be tempered by automaker and compounder efforts to minimize the use of costly POE impact modifiers in their formulations while still passing the mechanical property requirements,” cautions Moore.