Market research firm The Freedonia Group reports that world demand for pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) tapes is projected to increase 5.0 percent annually to more than 50 billion square meters in 2018. Market value growth through the same period will average 6.5 percent per year. This will represent an improvement over the performance of the 2008-2013 period, despite decelerating growth in China, the world’s largest PSA tape market by a comfortable margin.

According to analyst Mike Richardson, “Although growth in the developing world will still be faster, rebounding demand in several advanced economies will boost global demand for PSA tapes.” These and other trends are presented in World Pressure Sensitive Tapes, a new study from The Freedonia Group, Inc., a Cleveland-based market research firm.

Manufacturing activity declined in Western Europe and grew less than one percent annually in the US between 2008 and 2013; however, such activity is expected to expand appreciably in both of these markets, and most others, through 2018. Renewed vigor in most global construction markets is projected to boost demand for paint and coatings, creating a favorable outlook for masking tapes. The one notable exception to this trend is the Asia/Pacific region. Growth for the manufacturing and construction sectors there is expected to slow from the feverish pace of the past 10 years, but it will remain the fastest growing region for each, and not surprisingly, for tape demand as well. 

Although tapes are produced in every region of the world, a greater share of production capacity has shifted to the Asia/Pacific region over the past 10 years or so. While the region accounted for a bit more than 40 percent of world production in 2003, its share had grown to more than 55 percent in 2013.  Much of this development is attributable to China. Output of PSA tapes in China has grown at an even more impressive rate than its domestic market has, leading China to become an important supplier to the other nations in the Asia/Pacific region, as well as to Eastern Europe and North America. Taiwan and Indonesia also produce tapes mainly destined for export markets. In Europe, Italy will retain its position as the region’s dominant tape producer, supplying much of the market in both Eastern and Western Europe.

World Pressure Sensitive Tapes (published 05/2014, 412 pages) is available for $6300 from The Freedonia Group, Inc. For further details or to arrange an interview with the analyst, please contact Corinne Gangloff by phone 440-684-9600 or e-mail [email protected]. Information may also be obtained through www.freedoniagroup.com. 

Findings from The Freedonia Group