Owing to its great insulation property, polyethylene foam is widely used as a protective packaging material across the globe for cap liners, tableware, food trays, fruit trays and many more. More commonly known as PE foams, the market for this packaging solution segment accounted for the biggest share back in 2015 in terms of value and volume. This is seconded by the automotive end-use application market. Polyethylene foam is very lightweight which helps reduce the total mass of products it protects, thus minimizing their overall transportation costs.
In 2021, the PE foam market is estimated to grow by nearly 6% CAGR within 5 year time. This growth is primarily due to the rising demand for polyethylene foam from various industries, mainly packaging, automotive, building and construction, as well as sports and recreational applications. What further drives this market growth is the environmentally-conscious nature of the Asia-Pacific region with high demand for PE foams. Among the different types of this foam, the non-XLPE is projected to grow the highest. This is because of the cost-effectiveness of using this foam material as cartons, reducing shipment expenses. Non-XLPE is also resistant to moisture and most industrial chemicals.
The only major factor that restrains the unstoppable growth of polyethylene foam market is the volatile prices of raw materials used to manufacture this product. This in turn causes the price of PE foam to also fluctuate. Despite of this, we, here at Alcot Plastics, still aim to always produce high quality shock and vibration absorbent PE foams. We do this by working closely with each of our customers to create the most suitable shape and specification for their unique application. The recent projects we have with polyethylene foams include packaging for a variety of products such as electronics, toys, and glass objects, custom bottle stoppers, roll-bar padding for racing cars and mattress components in different shapes.
If you have a unique requirement for a polyethylene foam product, just give us a call and we’ll make it realize for you no matter how challenging it can be.