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Total world demand for nylon resins reached 2.3 million metric tons in 2006. The major producing and consuming regions include North America, Western Europe and Asia. Total world consumption of nylon resins is forecast to increase to about 2.8 million metric tons by 2011, representing an average annual growth rate of 4%. Reasonably good growth is projected to have resumed in major markets such as automotive parts, industrial/machinery, electrical/electronics and film in 2007.
In the United States, nylon 66 is the major type of nylon resin produced, in part because of DuPont’s major position in the production of this polymer. In Japan, nylon 6 is the major resin type. In Western Europe, however, the market share of nylon 66 is about equal to that of nylon 6. Other nylons (e.g., nylons 11 and 12) are considered specialty products and are consumed in much smaller quantities.
When considered as a family, nylon resins are the oldest and largest-volume engineering plastic. Other engineering plastics include polycarbonate, terephthalate polyesters, polyacetal and polyphenylene ether–based resins.
During 2000–2006, worldwide growth in nylon resin consumption was significantly lower than during 1994–1999. Growth in Europe and the United States during 2006–2011 is expected to approach 3.5–5% per year, while growth in Japan will be about 3.5%. China will see the highest average annual growth rate at 7% because of the significant amount of current activity and also because many outside producers are establishing production facilities in China. In some regions, nylon resin is approaching maturity in the growth cycle.
Increased use of reprocessed nylon fiber to make nylon resin compounds has extended the range of nylon resin applications into lower price/performance applications. Nylon 6 is less likely to crystallize and can be recycled many more times than 66. A significant amount of resins sold in the merchant market may be a blend of virgin and reprocessed resin.
Historically, the supply of nylon has been more fragmented than that of other engineering resins, although now some consolidation is occurring. A large number of suppliers had fragmented the market by compounding and/or providing polyamide resins with different molecular structures to meet market niche requirements. Until recently, many nylon suppliers competed in only one, or at most two, regional world markets. Now several large suppliers have globalized their businesses both in polymer production and compounding.
This report includes only nylon resins used primarily in plastics applications. Other types of polyamide-based materials, such as nylon fibers, polyamide elastomers, nonnylon types of polyamide resins and aromatic polyamides (aramids) used for specialty organic fibers, are presented in other sections of the Chemical Economics Handbook.
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