Market Trends of Specialty Films Industry
This section covers the major market trends shaping the Specialty Films Market according to our research experts:
Packaging Industry to Dominate the Market
- Packaging segment is the major market for specialty films, owing to their extensive usage in food and pharmaceutical packaging. Specialty films offer various advantages like moisture resistance, toughness, and heat resistance help in the storage of packaged products for a much longer time, as compared to traditional packaging. Food security and increasing pharmaceutical drug usage are driving the growth of specialty film packaging.
- Bread and bakery products have long been basic food products for human nutrition. The convenience, nutrition profile, and accessibility associated with these products are the major factors driving their demand, globally. Bread stands to be a staple diet of many local cuisines worldwide and indicates remarkable growth even during the period of global economic crisis. Their importance as a major portion of the diet has been prevalent in higher to lower-income group countries.
- Besides, the beverage industry has been witnessing strong growth, with increased consumption of functional drinks, such as dairy & dairy alternative drinks, energy drinks, sports drinks, fortified juice, and wine, etc.
- While wheat, bread and non-alcoholic beverage products have become an integral part of a human diet, the market demand for such products are anticipated to witness lesser impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, while. While dessert and other bakery products demand is likely to witness impact during 2020. However, considering the cravings and curiosity, masses have been observed preparing desserts at home.
- The processing, packaging, and commercial food service equipment sector is valued more at around USD 100 billion at present. Emerging market growth, urbanization, and rising living standards; coupled with increasing demand for convenience food has increased the demand of processed food all across the world.
- The food industry has been witnessing robust growth in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East & African regions. The rising income levels and the increasing population levels are the primary factors, which have been driving the growth of the food industry in these regions. Moreover, with huge scope for growth in these regions, new investments are being observed in food and beverage sector, which is intended towards setting up of individual confectionaries, food processing and beverage producing facilities.
- Besides, North America and Europe are matured markets for food and beverage industry. While dependency of these regions on processed food have been huge, health concerns such as obesity, diabetes, etc., have now been leading to shift of consumer preferences towards more balanced and natural diet, which is likely to drive the demand for wheat-, bread- & diary-based products and healthy & energy drinks, thus driving the demand for packaging as well in these regions.
- Hence, such trends in the global food and beverage industry are likely to continue influencing the consumption of specialty films over the forecast period. However, while the food and beverage industry have been witnessing impact of COVID-19 outbreak with limited production of essential products, the packaging demand is effected, in turn specialty films market is also likely to witness the repercussion in terms of consumption during 2020.
- But the slowly easing lockdown restrictions in various countries from July 2020, the food and beverage industry is likely to witness recovery in operations by the fourth quarter of 2020. In 2021, the investment, production and trade scenario for the food & beverage sector is anticipated to normalize, further restoring the demand for specialty films market thereon.
- With growth of healthcare industry, pharmaceutical industry witness positive influence on demand for medicines. Thus, healthcare industry growth directly influence the demand and production for pharmaceutical industry. Currently, various countries across the globe have been investing significantly on the development of the domestic healthcare industry in order to cater to medical needs of the growing population, further driving the growth of pharmaceutical industry.
- Overall, in the global pharmaceutical market, the sales of prescribed drugs are expected to witness a growth of more than 6% during the forecast period. The demand for pharmaceuticals is majorly likely to be driven by the regions, such as Asia-Pacific and North America.
- Hence, all such trends in healthcare and pharmaceutical industry are projected to drive the demand of dust control systems and suppression chemicals for pharmaceutical applications over the forecast period. While in 2020, pharmaceutical industry has witnessed sharp increase in R&D activities to develop the medicine for COVID-19, the experimental testing will further create future opportunities for specialty films over the forecast period.
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China to Dominate the Asia-Pacific Region
- In Asia-Pacific, China is the largest economy in terms of GDP. The country witnessed a growth of about 6.1% in its GDP during 2019, even after the trade disturbance caused due to its trade war with the United States.
- Although China was the first country affected by the COVID-19 outbreak and the related lockdown, it was the first country to come out of lockdown. However, the country has been witnessing recurring cases of coronavirus, leading to further lockdowns. Manufacturing is heavily impacted by this, and the sector is expected to continue with slow growth during 2020. Moreover, a major chunk of the Chinese economy is linked to foreign exports, where demand is still low due to the lockdowns in various countries due to the COVID-19 outbreak. This has been negatively affecting the Chinese industry in 2020.
- China is expected to register strong industrial growth over the coming years, with the petroleum refining industry expected to grow by 6%, pharmaceutical by 10%, food processing by 7%, textile by 5.5%, chemical by 9%, manufacturing by 8%, and mining by 6%. Investments and growth in these industries are projected to create demand for specialty films for various applications.
- The country stands to be the world's largest manufacturing economy and exporter, due to which the country's packaging requirement is huge. The packaging industry in China is expected to register tremendous growth, with a CAGR of nearly 6.8%, to reach CNY 2 trillion during the forecast period.
- China feeds 22% of the world's population on 7% of the world's land. The importance of agriculture and food in China is quite self-explanatory. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), China's agriculture industry has been growing rapidly over the past 70 years, with grain output expanding by almost 4.8 times in 2019. The country is the largest producer of various crops, including rice, cotton, potatoes, and many other vegetables. Thus, agricultural machinery emerged as the base of agricultural modernization.
- Due to the COVID-19 impact in the country, the manufacturing plants have been shutdown for around two months, in the first quarter of 2020. This reduced the production of these chemicals, in turn, reducing the demand for packaging. However, after 76 days, in April 2020, the government lifted the lockdown, which has resulted in resuming the manufacturing activities in the country. Therefore, this is likely to drive the demand in the coming months.
- The food processing industry is moving toward maturity in the country, witnessing moderate growth. Processed and packaged frozen foods are increasingly becoming popular, especially dairy, baby food, and confectionery products, which stands to be the driver for the food processing industry. In the beverage industry, the trend of the consumption of healthy, natural, and convenient ready-to-drink smoothies, juices, and yogurts is emerging.
- Processed fruits, pork, dairy, and some specialty grains and legumes are the food products that may drive the growth of the food processing industry in the country. Thus, the food and beverage industry is offering opportunities for investment, which is further expected to create demand for packaging, offering opportunities for the market. Moreover, the maturing food processing industry in the country is further expected to increase the demand for packaging.
- China is the second-largest market for pharmaceuticals, globally. The market for pharmaceuticals is emerging rapidly, owing to the growing middle-class and aging society present in the country, rising incomes, and increasing urbanization. The pharmaceutical sales of the country are expected to reach up to USD 175 billion by 2022. The country has a large and diverse domestic drug industry, comprising around 5,000 manufacturers, of which, many are of small- or medium-sized companies. This is expected to boost the growth of packaging used in the pharmaceutical industry.
- Cosmetics and personal care are one of the fastest-growing sectors in the country, covering a wide variety of industries, such as makeup, skin care, hair care, personal hygiene, fragrances, etc.. The Chinese cosmetics and personal care market experienced positive growth in 2019. The beauty sector, in the country, witnessed a growth of around 5% in the period of 2008-2019, with the upcoming trajectory too expected to be positive.
- China is the largest base for electronics production in the world. Electronic products, such as smartphones, TVs, wires, cables, portable computing devices, gaming systems, and other personal electronic devices recorded the highest growth in the electronics segment. The country serves not only the domestic demand for electronics, but also exports electronic output to other countries. In China, with the increase in the disposable income of the middle-class population and the rising demand for electronic products from countries importing electronic products from China, the production of electronics is projected to grow. With the growing electronics and construction industry, the demand for specialty films is expected to increase.
- However, currently, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the economic activities and industrial manufacturing activities have been affected significantly in the country. On the bright side, as of March 2020, China lifted the lockdown in the country and resumed various industrial operations in the country, while other countries are still aggressively engaged in lockdowns and treatments. Hence, from the above-mentioned factors, the demand for specialty films in China is likely to remain affected in the short run; however, the industrial demand is expected to normalize from 2021.
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