Coating - Aimcal

Executive Summaries • A Look Ahead
Release Liners
Worldwide, release-liner market growth in 2011
averaged 6-8 percent, but every region was different.
An estimated 63.6 percent of the world’s release-liner
markets represent the developed, mature geographic
markets of north America (31.9 percent) and Europe
(31.7 percent). Almost 29 percent of release-liner sales
are in Asia, growing at 10 percent per annum. South
America — another high-growth market with attractive
future prospects — currently has a 4.6 percent share of
the world market. Asia and South America will continue
to grow at a higher rate than north America and Europe,
with Asia soon being larger than developed geographies.
Continuing high raw-material costs, margin pressure and
structural change are prime issues for the release-liner
value chain. The market also has been characterized
recently by ongoing material- and chemical-supply
shortages, rationalization and downsizing and converter
consolidation.
An estimated 41.3 percent of the world’s release-liner
market is represented by direct coated (SCK or glassine)
substrates, with 15.4, 17.0, 12.0 and 14.3 percent
respectively represented by clay-coated, polyolefincoated,
other papers and film substrates. Growth in SCK
and glassine liner substrates is being driven primarily by
the label segment, the largest release-liner application
market, representing 51.5 percent of global liner usage.
Film liners make up 14.3 percent of the worldwide market
today. Clay- and polyolefin-coated liners (particularly in
graphic arts applications) continue to penetrate specific
markets where performance characteristics support their
choice.
There has been significant release-base downgauging
of both paper and films, particularly in labelstock
applications, driven both by the need for manufacturing
economies and environmental, waste-reduction and
recycling issues. The increasing global impact of the
REACH legislation and the continuing lack of alternatives
to platinum as a silicone-coating catalyst are topics of
high interest.
For pressure-sensitive labelstock applications, film liner’s
share has grown considerably to around 20 percent today
– primarily with PET as the substrate.
Pressure-sensitive tapes are the second-largest releaseliner
application segment, accounting for one-eighth of the
total world market. Industrial applications such as building
and construction, HVAC, film casting, envelopes, etc.,
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suffered as a result of the economic downturn – in both
the markets for pressure-sensitive and process liners.
The medical, hygiene and wound-care markets are
buoyant worldwide, but Asia outpaces other world regions
with medical applications alone expanding by 20-25
percent per annum. These segments favor film, and there
is increasing use of film liners and carriers in the global
ethical and OTC wound-care market. Stoma care, surgical
incision films and drapes, electrode terminals and related
medical applications also are strong global liner markets,
as well as the hygiene market in developing economies,
where the use of disposable diapers, feminine hygiene
and adult-incontinence products increases.
For pressure-sensitive graphic arts applications, paperbased
liners – mostly polyolefin-coated – continue to
account for the bulk of this substrate’s usage.
Release-liner waste management in the pressuresensitive
label field is a hot issue now and will be in the
future, although there is growing evidence of recycling
schemes in north America and Europe involving collection
and recycling of liner waste. While film liner must be
sorted by polyolefin type for recycling, it is easy to handle
in industrial waste-recycling processes and needs no prior
treatment. “Clean” film-liner waste is commanding high
prices and can represent a positive revenue stream for
converters. Papers have been claimed to be the natural
answer to sustainability issues in packaging, but release
paper recycling is currently underutilized.
Finally, there is increasing interest in linerless labels,
especially for food packaging, weigh-scale and industrial
barcode-labeling applications where label shape
limitations are not an important factor. n
By corey M. Reardon, president/ceo, AWA Alexander
Watson Associates, +31-20-676-2069, email:
c.reardon@awa-bv.com, www.awa-bv.com