World Geosynthetics

Global demand to rise 5.3% per annum through 2013
Worldwide demand for geosynthetics is projected to rise 5.3 percent annually to 4.7 billion square meters in 2013. China, India, Russia and other countries with large-scale infrastructure developments planned, and evolving environmental protection regulations and building construction codes are expected to register the strongest advances. While growth in geosynthetic sales is expected to be substantial in nearly every region, the underlying reasons for that growth will vary widely.

Strong growth in China will benefit Asia/Pacific region
The Asia/Pacific region, the largest market, accounted for 44 percent of global geosynthetic sales in 2008. Advances in this region are primarily driven by China, which itself accounted for three-quarters of the region’s geosynthetic sales in 2008. Gains stem from the country’s ongoing development of large-scale hydrological and transportation infrastructure projects, as well as its need to protect against erosion and soil loss. Similarly, India is expected to exhibit double-digit annual growth through the forecast period as it also develops its transportation infrastructure and landfills, as well as greater erosion protection. However, in many of the least developed countries of the world, growth will be more limited due to lack of adequate funding, a lack of regulations that require geosynthetic use and the presence of lower-cost alternatives.

The North American region was the second largest market in 2008, accounting for nearly a quarter of global sales. Advances in the US market are expected to be aided in the near term by government spending initiatives on roads, bridges and other public works projects that have been included as part of an economic stimulus package. Canada’s geosynthetics market is much smaller than that of the US, but benefits from a comparable level of development, regulation and ability to fund the upfront costs of geosynthetics. The Mexican market is smaller still and much less mature than its US and Canadian counterparts, largely because of competition from lower-cost alternatives such as rock aggregate and natural fiber geotextiles, as well as a less stringent environmental and construction regulatory environment.

Western Europe and Japan are fairly comparable to the US in terms of the level of maturity of their respective geosynthetic markets, as well as the type of regulatory environment. These countries are constructing large-scale infrastructures and landfills at a much slower pace than in less mature markets. However, the relative affluence of these countries allows them to use advanced geosynthetic technologies to improve construction and environmental protection practices despite their larger upfront costs.

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Major markets to exhibit healthy advances
In 2008, the construction market accounted for the largest share of geosynthetic sales, benefitting from factors such as the passage of environmental regulations and building codes, as well as the rising need for erosion control and other practices to provide reinforcement and drainage and to protect against soil loss in a growing number of countries. The transportation infrastructure market was the second largest market in 2008, and both it and construction are expected to post strong growth through 2013. Gains will be aided by the increasing use of geosynthetics in transportation infrastructure to extend the useful life of these projects and reduce the maintenance requirements.