Building & construction plastics are organic polymers of higher molecular mass often containing additives. The plastics are preferred in building & construction asit is light weight and energy efficient. In addition, plastics have several characteristics such as scratch resistance, durability, design freedom and flexibility.The plastics used in the building& construction have lower maintenance and range of waste management options. The building & construction plastics are classified as PVC, PS, acrylics, PU, TPE, composite materials and others (PET, PP, PE, etc.). PVC is the most used plastic in the building& construction industry.PVC finds applications in pipes & ducts, windows & door profiles and roofing. Composite materials are second largest market for building& construction plastics and are used in concrete reinforcement and bathroom accessories among others.Acrylics and TPE are expected to grow in the near future due to increasing demand from the construction industry with flexible design.Other types of plastics finds applications in roofing, cladding and insulation.

Building & construction plastics are used in the infrastructure industry in major applications such aspipes & ducts, insulation, door fittings and others. The other significant applications of building & construction plastics include cladding, floor and wall insulation,water proofing, concrete reinforcement and windows & door profiles. In addition, there is a huge demand of plastics from building & construction industry. The demand has increased due to various applications in flexible architectural designs and renovation of old buildings.

The global building and construction market is growing owing to the continuously increasing population and changing lifestyles, especially in emerging economies such as India, China and Brazil.Growth in the building& construction sector coupled with urbanization in BRIC countries has been driving the global building and construction plastics market in the past few years.However, the price impact of upstream raw materials such as crude oil and feed stock is anticipated to hamper the growth of the building & construction plastics market.Increasing application scope of building& construction plastics in the green building market coupled with rising demand for bio-based plastics are expected to open opportunities for the growth of the market over the coming years.

PVC components were the majorly consumedbuilding& construction plasticsin the market in 2012 and accounted for around 35% of the global demand. Composite materials were the second largest consumed building & construction plastics in the market. Acrylics are expected to grow within the forecast period on account of their increasing usage in applications such as surface coatings, adhesives and sealants among others.TPE are another type of building& construction plastics whose demand is anticipated to grow over the forecast period due to rising demand of flexible structures. Demand for otherbuilding & construction plastics such as PP, PE and PETis expected to be steady due to a substantially higher demand from other building & construction plastics in the near future.

Pipes & ducts accounted for a major portion of the building & construction plastics market and accounted for over 30% of the global demand in 2012. The demand for building& construction plastics in the pipes & ducts has been growing rapidly over the past few years owing to the properties of plastics such as thermal conductivity and insulation. The pipes & ducts market is likely to follow a similar trend over the next few years. Growing construction market in emerging countries has led to a significant rise, leading to higher demand forbuilding& construction plastics.Furthermore, increasing use of building& construction plasticsininsulation due to plastic being bad conductor of electricity is expected to drive building& construction plastics market. Usage of building & construction plastics ininsulation has been significantly rising and is expected to follow a similar drift in the next six years.

The building& construction plasticsdemand was highestfrom North America in 2012 accounting over 30% of the global market, owing to growing demand from building and construction industry. The demand for pipes & ducts, insulation, cladding and other construction applications is currently the largest in North America and is expected to significantly grow with the increasing development in residential complexes. However, demand from other regions such as Europeis expected to be low due to certain environmental regulations regarding PVC, PU and other plastics. The demand for building& construction plastics is expected to increase in Asia Pacific due to rising building& construction industry owing to increasing population and urbanization in this part of the world.

Companies such as BASF SE, DuPont, Borealis AG, The Dow Chemical Company, Solvay SA, Arkema SA and PetroChina Ltd. account for less than 10% market share each. In addition, the building& construction plastics market is dominated by largeglobal manufacturers of building & construction plastics.