Sep 6 2007
China, whose GDP now ranks fourth in the world, is a major TPE market. Its demand for TPEs has grown excessively in the past decade, prompting the set-up of many production facilities in the region. China now holds huge market share for both the demand and production of TPEs globally.
Today, the automotive and footwear sectors are the largest and fastest-growing end markets for TPEs in China, followed by consumer and electronic goods. These sectors inject strong momentum for domestic and multinational compounders.
With the coming Olympics 2008 in Beijing, China footwear industry will grow even bigger. TPE is most popularly processed as an over-mold material in injection molding technique, where TPE is chemically bonded to another compatible plastic material. This technique is often applied in areas that require soft touch and/or grip, for example, in power tools, push buttons in automobiles, etc. Having two materials with different chemical properties, the mould will require a different design from the normal injection mould.
A Specialty Elastomers/TPEs Conference will be held on 14-15 November 2007 on Shanghai to discuss the technology breakthroughs and challenges in the TPE industry.
Other key presentations will include:
- Latest market developments and growth potential of thermoplastic elastomer (TPE), thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPV), thermoplastic olefin (TPO), styrene block copolymer (SBC), polyether-block-amide thermoplastic elastomer (PEBA) in China/Asia
- Outlook of TPE Compounding industry
- Breakthroughs in new innovations, applications and processing technology
- End-user perspectives: Automotive, Electronics, Power tools, Footwear, and Coated Fabrics
- Mold design & processing complexities with TPEs