Waterborne Adhesives MarketSize and Trends

Market Outlook

Increased demand from packaging application is projected to drive growth of the market. Waterborne adhesive products are used in tapes, labels, and lamination application in food and consumer goods packaging. Waterborne adhesives exhibit high resistance to heat, chemicals, and are non-reactive in nature. Moreover, increasing demand from growing automotive industry in emerging economies of India, China, and Brazil is expected to bolster the market growth. According to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) and Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), sales of cars in China stood at 28.87 million in 2017 and 24.97 million in India, respectively. Waterborne adhesives are used in automotive interior applications such as headliners, panels, flooring, and consoles.

Asia Pacific is projected to be the largest market for waterborne adhesives over the forecast period. This can be attributed to high growth potential of emerging economies of China and India. According to the Institution of Civil Engineers, China and India were the largest and fourth largest markets for construction, in 2017. India is projected to overtake Japan and become the third largest construction market by 2025. Waterborne adhesives are commonly employed in construction applications such as roofing, flooring, and binding of wood components in buildings among others. This coupled with a growing retail industry has bolstered use of waterborne adhesives in packaging applications.

North America is expected to be the second largest market for waterborne adhesives over the forecast period. This is primarily due to high demand in the U.S., which is the world’s second largest construction market. According to U.S. Department of Commerce, the construction market in the U.S. grew by 2.4% in 2017 over the previous year. This growth trend is expected to continue over the forecast period, due to high government infrastructure spending policies. The redevelopment and/or development of public infrastructure such as airports, rail stations, pipelines among others across the country will boost growth of the market for waterborne adhesives. Also, strict regulations and recommendations by the government regulatory authority, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has boosted the utilization of waterborne adhesives in the country. VOC content in adhesives, in most applications must be below 850g/liter according to EPA regulations. Also, imported products, which utilize adhesives also have to comply with the local regulations. Hence, strict regulations in the U.S. has led to exporting countries adopting waterborne adhesives in favor of solvent borne adhesives.

Market Dynamics

Major drivers for growth of the market are increasing use of waterborne adhesives in packaging and automotive applications, which is primarily due to strict environmental regulation pertaining to VOC content in adhesive products. Government bodies such as U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), International Maritime Organization, European Union and Health Canada are among those enforcing regulations against high VOC content products.

Market Dynamics

Major challenges for the growth of the market include fluctuating raw material prices and availability of these materials. Also, complex formulation and high cost compared to solvent borne adhesives may result in slow market growth in countries where VOC related regulations are lax or absent.