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The total market for flame retardants in the United States, Europe and Asia in 2004 amounted to about 1.5 million metric tons and was valued at $2.8–2.9 billion. This market is expected to grow at an average annual rate of about 3% per year on a volume basis during 2004–2009.
Asia Pacific, excluding Japan, represents the most rapidly growing market for flame retardants since manufacture of consumer goods requiring flame retardants has been migrating to this area. Currently, most use is in printed circuit boards and housings for consumer electronics and business machines for export, so these products must meet the flame retardant regulations of the destination countries. Other components contributing to this growth are the rising standards of living in the Asia Pacific countries, increasing regional demand and more stringent domestic regulations requiring flame retardancy. The major flame-retarded resins in this region are epoxy and phenolic resin (for printed circuit boards) as well as acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and polystyrene (for consumer electronics and business machine housings). Growth in Japanese flame retardant consumption is expected to be less than in the Other Asia region because of a shift in production to those areas.
The following graphs show consumption of flame retardants in the major regions.
The flame retardant market is affected by regulation in two countervailing ways. First, there are international, regional and national fire safety regulations and flammability standards for the flame retardancy of various products that are used by the construction, transportation, and electrical and electronics industries. Government regulations also affect chemical species that are deemed to have deleterious effects on the environment or human health. Flame retardant compounds, especially halogenated compounds and antimony trioxide, increasingly must deal with the second situation.
The flame retardant business has emerged as a result of requirements that manufacturers of plastics, textiles and other materials meet various safety standards and government regulations by improving the flame retardant characteristics of their products. Because most flame retardants contribute no other useful properties to a product (and often compromise other performance characteristics), their use is almost entirely driven by legislation and industry standards. Indeed, growth (or decline) in this business can often be impacted far more dramatically by new regulations than by growth in the end-use markets. Because many flame retardants (e.g., chlorinated hydrocarbons, brominated compounds) are subject to scrutiny either for their own toxicity or for that of their combustion products, current or potential health and environmental regulations are also important determinants of the specific types of flame retardant used. An understanding of current regulations and an awareness of potential new ones is an important requirement for success as a participant.
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