Global Lactic Acid & Poly Lactic Acid (PLA) Market by Applications and Potential Opportunities (2011-2016)

Countries covered: Global Today, public concern regarding the environment, increasing desire of manufacturing companies to develop more sustainable products, limited fossil fuel resources, and climate change are important reasons for governments and companies to find substitutes to crude oil-based products. Bio-based plastics present huge potential to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels and the related environmental impacts. In recent years, PLA has emerged as one of the most popular bio-degradable plastics available in the market. PLA finds major applications in the food packaging industry, especially in frozen foods, ready-to-eat meals, and cutlery. Increasing awareness regarding the environmental consequences by the use of conventional plastic packaging is expected to drive the demand for PLA in the near future. This surge in PLA demand is expected to reflect in demand for lactic acid as PLA is the largest application market for it. The technical developments in emerging bio-based plastics have substantially improved the properties of novel bio-based plastics such as heat resistance of PLA, enabling a much wider range of applications. This study estimates the global capacity of PLA and lactic acid by the end of 2016. Europe is the most dominant market for PLA while Asia-Pacific, owing to significant domestic demand, is expected to be the fastest growing market in the next five years. Cost competitiveness against alternatives is a key challenge for industry participants along with the growing mismatch in the supply demand scenario. The global PLA market is currently witnessing supply restraints as there are only a few major suppliers on a global platform. However, market players are increasingly focusing on increasing production capacities; especially in the Asia-Pacific region owing to the cheap availability and wide abundance of starting raw materials such as sugarcane, sugar beet, and tapioca in the region for lactic acid production. Growing demand for PLA is expected to drive the lactic acid market in the near future. Lack of supply capabilities on the part of market players is perceived to be a key issue for the lactic acid market in the near future. The global lactic acid market is dominated by North America, accounting for 35.8% of the overall market in 2010. Europe and Asia-Pacific are the second and third largest markets for lactic acid; accounting for 29.9% and 29.2% of the overall market respectively in 2010. Industrial applications are the largest for lactic acid, accounting for 42.4% of the overall market in 2010. In the last few years, industrial applications have surpassed food and beverages as a leading application for the consumption of lactic acid. This has primarily been a result of strong growth in the PLA and solvents markets for which lactic acid is the primary raw material. The report provides a comprehensive review of major market drivers, challenges, opportunities, and key issues in the market. The market is further segmented and forecasted for major geographic regions; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World that include key growth regions such as Brazil. The key countries covered include U.S., U.K., China, and Japan. The report estimates the market size for lactic acid and PLA; both in terms of volumes and revenue. The market has been further segmented on the basis of applications. The various applications for PLA such as packaging, textiles, electronics, and medical have been discussed in detail in the report. Market share for major market players has been calculated on the basis of announced production capacities and is described in detail for both lactic acid and PLA. The report also consists of profiles of leading players of this industry with their recent developments and the other strategic industry activities. The key players included in the report are NatureWorks LLC (U.S.), Purac (The Netherlands), Pyramid Bioplastics Guben GmBH (Germany), Archer Daniels Midland Company (U.S.), and Henan Jindan (China).

Additional Information

Scope of the report

Poly Lactic Acid (PLA) Market and Lactic Acid Market research report categorizes the global market for PLA and lactic acid on the basis of applications, raw materials, and geography; forecasting volumes, revenues, and analyzing trends in each of the following submarkets:

On the basis of applications: The PLA market is segmented on the basis of applications such as packaging, textiles, electronics, medical, agriculture, transportation, and the other applications. The packaging application for PLA is further segmented on the basis of packaging types such as rigid packaging, loose fill packaging, compost bags, and others. The lactic market is segmented on the basis of applications such as industrial applications, food and beverages, pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and others.

On the basis of raw materials: Corn (maize), sugarcane and sugar beet, tapioca, and others.

On the basis of geography: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, ROW, and key countries in every region

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