ANTIOXIDANTS/UV STABILISERS | ADDITIVES
Antioxidant and stabiliser makers are responding to regulatory changes and more stringent end user performance demands with a range of new products. Peter Mapleston reports
AO and stabiliser markets driven by regulation and performance
Compounders using antioxidants and stabilisers cannot afford to take their eye off the ball. This game is changing so quickly, whether it be the rules about what is allowed and how it is produced, or (keeping with the metaphor) the size of the goal, meaning what their customers want. Fortunately, additive suppliers are available to help. This article finds out how. Irfaan Foster, Global Business Development Manager for Specialty Additives at Addivant, puts antioxidant (AO) developments in a global context of increasing concerns over materials availability and supply security. He points to above GDP growth increases in polymer capacity around the world, especially for polyolefins in the US, but says expansions in capacities for additives are not always keeping pace (Addivant has an ongoing major investment programme for antioxidant production covered later).
Other factors include a clamp-down on pollution in China leading to some plant closures, a trend that could well accelerate in coming months. Over the past two years, some production of intermediates for stabilisers has shut down or forced to relocate to chemical parks with dedicated infrastructure. China is not alone in increasing its focus on
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regulatory compliance; over the past 10 years more than 40 countries have introduced new legislation on chemicals management, Foster points out. Tougher laws, especially relating to health and safety, could lead to implementation of costly treatment steps that will inevitably affect the price of products. In the European Union, REACH regulations will begin to bite even harder next year as deadlines on registration of products manufactured or imported in volumes between one and one hundred tonnes per year come into play (May 31 is the deadline date). Foster says many suppliers of such products are questioning the value of obtaining registration, which does not come cheaply. This may lead to some chemicals – including certain AOs and UV stabilisers – being withdrawn from the market. Compounders may well have to work very quickly in 2018 and 2019 to reformulate at least some of their products, Foster predicts. “Compounders need to ensure that they have
robust supply chains, working together with suppliers that have multiple sites so that they can supply the products they need,” he says. Addivant has introduced several products over the past few months to meet changing customer
September 2017 | COMPOUNDING WORLD 39
Main image: Polymer additive suppliers are developing new products that meet tougher regulatory and performance demands
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
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