Cleveland — Anyone trying to navigate the 2024 plastic concentrates market is going to need a map.
That market is "a complex landscape," Derek Hepburn said Nov. 13 at AMI Plastics World Expos in Cleveland. "Things have changed considerably because of economic uncertainty in Europe, the conflict in Ukraine and consolidation in the polymers industry."
Hepburn is the group technical director at Colloids, a unit of materials firm Tosaf Group based in Knowlsey, United Kingdom. He was part of a panel of concentrates executives at the event.
Industry veteran Doreen Becker said she was "very optimistic" about the future of the concentrates industry. "From a sustainability perspective, there are a lot of new ideas and new products with post-industrial and post-consumer recycled content," added Becker, global sustainability director with Ampacet Corp, in Tarrytown, N.Y. "Companies are finding new ways to use color and to make color last longer."
Concentrates makers continue to face supply chain challenges, Hepburn said, although firms also are finding opportunities in lightweighting and recyclability. Becker added that supply chains have always been an issue for materials firms, but in recent years, COVID and severe weather have made those challenges worse. "We all need to strengthen and hardwire our supply chains," she said.
The U.S. market presents its own set of challenges, Becker said, since it's very regional and less globalized. As a result, concentrates makers have to be aware of regulations in different states.
Ampacet also has used artificial intelligence to correct color production as it happens, which Becker said saves money and reduces waste when using recycled materials.
But technology only goes so far.
"It's still important to meet face to face — to get in front of customers and go to their plants and talk to people," Becker said.
Color concentrates have maintained market share, even after suppliers were concerned designers would use less color because colored products can be more difficult to recycle.
"I can't imagine plastics without color," said. O. Ege Onar, business development director with Mine Colours in Blacksburg, Va. "It plays a pivotal role. I think color is here to stay."
"[The plastics market] was going away from color customers, but brand owners now need color to differentiate," Becker said.
In new technology, Hepburn said, Colloids is using graphene materials to improve performance in concentrates. He added that as R&D departments shrink at larger materials firms, those suppliers "need more help from masterbatch [concentrates] companies."
Onar said Mine is working to improve its color measuring systems to reduce wait times.
In sustainability, Becker said, concentrates makers "need to look at [recycled content] as fit for purpose. … The recycling situation gets dirtier every day and there's no FDA for recycling. … The materials aren't tested, and there are no migration studies.
"Customers expect [recycled-content concentrates] to look perfect and to cost the same as virgin material," she added.
And concentrates makers, like other plastics firms, face an ongoing challenge to defend the image of their material. "If you said you had a material that essentially was infinitely recyclable, you'd win a Nobel Prize tomorrow," Hepburn said. "Education has to come from us."