In recent years, limited by the rising labor costs, a lot of the shoes making factories based in the Pearl River Delta sponsored by companies from Hong Kong,
Taipwan and mainland China had all started to migrate abroad to south east Asian countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia and India. Since the shoes making industry is one of the main demands of TPU material, the emigration of these factories have inevitably led to the narrowing of the TPU demand. In response to that, many TPU factories had started to develop new markets in areas like medical instrumentation, portable devices and high-end sports shoes.
In fact, TPU is an ideal replacement for PVC in medical instrumentation because TPU can be softened by body heat when it is inserted inside. TPU has just the right hardness before insertion and its heating-deforming characteristic makes it very patient-friendly. By now, a lot of big medical companies such as Kindly and Baihe Medical have started to use TPU for their instrumentation.
As for the TPU raw material market, a lot of the AA, BDO factories are having a hard time. Raw materials are already overproduced. On top of that, due to the increasing effort on environmental protection, demands from downstream slurry and sole liquid are shrinking. However, with the realization of other potential markets, factory owners that have gained new insights into the market outlook have started to plan for new cooperation with TPU manufacturers.
The Forum for the Trends of elastomer applications is due to take place in Shenzhen this coming March. It is already attracting a great number of TPU manufacturers and TPU raw material makers, who hope to find new opportunities and plan ahead accordingly. So far, companies that have confirmed to attend are the internationally renowned big brands. There are over 50 of them, including Pepson, Basf, Wanhua, Lubrizol,Polyone, Austin New Material, Greco, Ruian, Rising Excellence, Huawei, Xiaomi.
