Future Growth Potential Enhanced by Increasing Healthcare Expenditure in Developing Economies
The global medical plastics market includes commodity thermoplastics (CTP), engineering thermoplastics (ETP), thermoplastic elastomers (TPE), thermosets, and high performance polymers (HPP). By end-product family type, the market has been divided into devices, equipment and instruments (DEI), prosthetics & implants (P&I), and healthcare packaging (packaging).
Medical plastics offer remarkable benefits over conventional materials, such as metals, glass, and ceramics, and have been revolutionizing the medical industry over the last few years. They are extremely cost-effective, flexible, durable, biocompatible, chemically inert, resistant to wear and tear, lightweight, and recyclable. Plastic materials offer miniaturization, greater ease of processing and sterilization and are being used worldwide for various medical applications including medical devices, surgical instruments, capital equipment, prosthetics, implants, and pharma packaging.
Both by value and volume, CTP including polyolefins (PO), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polystyrene (PS) had the highest share in the global medical plastics market in 2020 and are expected to retain it during the forecast period. These polymers are extensively preferred due to their low costs, performance benefits, and wider availability. CTP are majorly used in packaging, such as manufacturing medical bottles, containers, prefilled syringes, caps and closures, blister packaging, blood bags, and other pharma and medical packaging products.
Developing countries, especially those in Asia-Pacific, MEASA, and Latin America are undergoing rapid economic development and urbanization and have emerged as prominent low-cost manufacturing hubs for various plastic-based medical products. The mature markets of North America and Europe are focused on acquiring sustainable value-added medical plastics while providing improved performance across diverse domains.
Due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare industry witnessed a significant drop in elective and semi-elective medical procedures including plastic, replacement, exploratory, and cardiovascular surgeries in 2020, as hospitals focused on treating COVID-19 patients.
To retain their position in the supply chain and ensure a smooth product supply of products, medical plastic manufacturers are anticipated to strengthen long-term relationships with resin producers, distributors, compounders, and extruders. In addition, the market is expected to exhibit mergers and acquisitions and vertical integration activities among companies to increase their product offerings and stay ahead of the competition. Companies are also focused on developing value-added and innovative product grades and enhancing the performance of existing ones to drive revenue growth.
