Abstract
Monumental Price of Raw Materials Rises for PSAs Challenges Operation
The prices of raw materials used to make PSAs have undergone colossal changes
since the middle of 2004. Some of the raw material prices have gone up by 50%,
while prices for a few others have doubled. This can be attributed to the
short supply of acrylic monomers for the acrylic-based PSAs and isoprene for
the rubber-based PSAs. This poses serious challenge to the PSA manufacturers,
as they are unable to entirely transfer the price increases to the next member
in the value chain. The cut in margins because of this has affected the PSA
manufacturers severely, and this is a serious challenge that the industry has
to deal with.
High End-user Growth and New Applications Fuel Growth
The high rate of growth in products that use PSA labels and narrow-web
graphics has been one of the main reasons that have been fueling the high rate
of growth of the PSA industry. The rate of growth in the end-user industry is
directly reflected on the growth of the PSA industry. The easy-to-use nature
of these products has been one of the major factors for end-users to prefer
using PSA labels and narrow-web graphics.
In addition to this, new applications like RFID and smart labels are touted to
be high growth segments. This is because these labels can carry more
information than conventional labels and are more in-line with the changing
trends that characterize the digital world. This is another reason that is
expected to sustain the growth of the PSA industry.
Total Market Expected to Grow at a CAGR of 9 Percent
The U.S. PSA markets for labels and narrow-web graphics is expected to growth
with a CAGR of 9 percent during the years 2006-2012. The total U.S. PSA
markets for labels and narrow-web graphics unit shipments are expected to
continue to growth at a CAGR of 6.6 percent due to high end-user growth. The
UV technology is a new technology that have started to receive wide acceptance
in the industry and that segment of the industry is a fragmented and
developing segment with growth rates in double digits. While the solvent-based
PSAs are expected to show decreasing growth percents, the water-based and
solvent-based segments are expected to growth in the lines of the total
industry.
View Cart
