Capacity Additions

Historically, there very few players in the biodegradable plasticssectors mostly in the USA and Western Europe. With an exceptional acceptance ofthe biodegradable plastics, a number of companies started their pilot plantsand subsequently till 2017-2018, there were more than 25+ major producers ofbiodegradable plastics globally. The most important player in the PLA field isNatureWorks followed by Total Corbion. NatureWorks operates a 150 kilo tons ofPLA capacity at Nebraska, USA while Total Corbion started commercial productionof PLA at its 75 kilo tons facility in Rayong, Thailand.

NatureWork is the leading producer of PLA globally, in the wake ofincrease in demand, third party sources have indicated that the company maycarry out an expansion of its plant in the next few years but no capacityexpansion news has been announced by the company.

Teijin has a 10 kilo tons facility in Japan while most other Japaneseproducers of PLA do not have any significant capacity as the production ismostly carried out in their pilot plants. The major Chinese producers of PLAinclude Zhejiang HiSun Biomaterials Company, Esun (Shenzhen Esun IndustrialCo., Ltd), Jilin Cofco Bimaterials. Wefor You (Austria based)also operates a 75 kilo tons plant in China.

Therehave been lot of announcements in the PLA biodegradable plastic capacities andmost of the companies especially have announced their projects in China. ShanghaiTongjie Liang Biomaterials Co. and Global Bio-Chem Technology Group are some ofthe major players that have announced capacity additions in the PLA type ofbiodegradable plastics.

The major European PLA producers are Synbera, Sulzur and Futerro (Galactic-TotalJV). Synbera technologies operates the biggest commercial facility atNetherlands producing around 5 kilo tons while both the plants operated bySulzur and Futerro are of small scale and each of their capacity is estimatedto be around 1.5 kilo tons each.

  Historically,the Western European region has witnessed some capacity closures of pilotplants and there may be small closure during the forecast period as well. Accordingto our market model on biodegradable plastics, the total PLA capacitiesadditions from 2019 to 2025 is believed to be around 300 kilo tons. Most of thecapacities are likely to be added in China.

In terms of Starch blend capacities, most of the capacities arepresent in China followed by other countries. Novamont has recently increasedits starch based production by 40 kilo tons to reach 150 kilo tons at itsPatrica facility in Italy. In terms of PHA, PHBH, new plants are coming up inRussia by Bio-On JV while Kaneka Corporation may increase it PHA productioncapacity up to 20 kilo tons in Japan, mostly to export to European and Japaneseconsumers.

In terms of market share of new capacity additions Asia-Pacific,mostly China is expected to lead during the forecast period. Some new investmentin biodegradable plastics value chain in other countries / regions has alsobeen announced.

Note: In China,most of the capacity are announced and mostly are delayed. The producers and capacitydata is not available and contradictory and hence not verifyable. We alsobelieve not all capacity announced will be online and on time. Some of themwill get delayed and eventually cancelled owing to various reasons.

Global Biodegradable PlasticsCapacities (Plants & Projects)