Asia-Pacific Polyacetal (POM) Market Size, Share, Insights and Outlook

Asia-Pacific Polyacetal (POM)

Polyoxymethylene is a crystalline thermoplastic resin. The market of POM is segmented based on applications including automotive, industrial, consumer & home appliances, food, medical devices, sporting goods, semi-finished products and others. The key players in the global POM market are Celanese, Polyplastics, Asahi-Kasei, Korea Engineering Plastics, Kolon Plastics, LG Chemical, BASF, Formosa Plastics Corporation. Polyplastics is one of the largest POM resin suppliers globally with production capacity of around 305 Kiloton annually. The production facilities are located in Japan, Malaysia, China and Taiwan.

Demand Analysis:

The market of POM in APAC region is driven by its demand from the end-use industries. Automotive accounted for a significant share of APAC POM market in 2023. In automotive industry, POM is used in interior, exterior and under the bonnet parts of automotive. In interior parts, POM is used in components such as rear-view mirror, sun visors, switches, window regulators, door locks, seat levers, ventilators, pedals, car navigation system, glove compartments knobs etc. The consumption of engineering plastic in automotive is driven by the demand of light weight vehicles to increase fuel efficiency and reduce emissions. Various regulations have been formulated to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gasses in the environment. This has led the automotive manufacturers to decrease the weight of their automotives through adoption of engineering plastic during the production of automotive. Additionally, the growing production of automotives globally owing to increase in spending power, new product development and economic growth will drive the market of POM.

China was estimated to be the largest consumer of POM in the region in 2023 driven by its vast automotive industry. China is the largest market of automotive globally and produced around 26 Million Units of cars in 2021 which increased by year-on-year growth rate of 3.4% from 2020. Additionally, the Chinese government has taken several steps to increase the automotive consumption in the country. This includes selling of vehicles which meets the China 5 emission standard without restriction, reduction of sales tax of cars, improving parallel import policies for automotive and supporting electric vehicle consumption. The country’s automotive production is expected to reach around 35 million vehicles by 2025. The growing production of automotive in the country will drive the consumption of POM in the country.

Japan accounted for xx% of the region POM demand in 2023. Japan is also a significant market of automotive in the region. Japan’s automotive industry is the third largest automotive producing industry globally. With the presence of around 78 factories in 22 prefectures and workforce of around 5.5 million employees, the automotive industry is a major contributor to the country's economy. Several domestic brands such as Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Suzuki and Mitsubishi dominate the automotive market in the country. Japan’s Strategic Commission for the New Era of Automobiles published an Interim report mentioning long term goals for the year 2050. These goals included achieving 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emission per vehicle through technological development, promotion of vehicle connectivity and optimisation of car utilisation. The growing automotive sector and the rising demand for reduction in green house emission will drive the market of POM in the country.

Recent Development

• Polyplastics Co., Ltd announced to construct a new POM manufacturing facility in Nantong, China. The production facility will have capacity of 150 Kiloton and will be built in two stages. The 1^st stage with production capacity of 90 Kiloton will be completed by November 2024. Previously, the company had production facility located in Nantong, which was suspended owing to China’s Nantong Economic and Technological Development Zone. The new production facility is expected to cover the impact of shutdown of old facility.