Asia-Pacific Remains Largest Market for UV Curable Resins for Coatings and Inks

Accoding to a recent market survey by MarketsandMarkets, Asia-Pacific is the world’s largest and fastest-growing market of UV curable resins, consuming more than half of the total global demand, and is also a major consumer of radiation/energy curable products. China and Japan are the key consumers of UV curable resins in Asia-Pacific, while countries including South Korea and Taiwan have comparatively small consumption levels, but are crucial countries in terms of production.

Electronics and industrial coating end-use segments are driving the demand for high-performance coatings, inks and adhesives, which is pushing demand for UV curable resins within the region. Intensified efforts of various regulatory authorities to promote environment-friendly products have led to innovation and developments in the industry, making it a strong hub and the most potential growth market for UV curable resins and its products.

The Indian market, being a very price competitive market, has very small consumption levels of UV curable resins but as per the industry experts, the potential of the Indian market can never be undervalued, and once the need for performance products will catch pace, the consumption of UV curable resins and its products will grow significantly.

UV curable resins are employed for the formulation of UV curable coatings, inks, adhesives, etc. Coatings manufacturing is the biggest as well as the fastest-growing application segment of UV curable resins, consuming more than 65.0% of the total global demand in 2012. Due to the green nature of UV curable coatings and an extremely less curing time, it is seen as an incredibly attractive alternative by various end-user industries. Field applied coatings and metal coating applications (coil, automotive, etc.) are expected to be the key growth areas for UV curable coatings in the near future.

The UV curable inks market is also growing considerably on account of strict norms related to printing on food packaging. Industrial coating is the biggest end-user industry of UV curable resins, consuming more than 35.0% of the total global demand in 2012. The industrial coating industry is dominant around the globe, unlike electronics, which is only dominant in Asia-Pacific.