Adhesives are a part of all aspects of daily life and beyond: at home and at the office, in sports and leisure goods as well as in industrial processing and many other segments. Given their versatility and increasing performance, they are still becoming more and more important. Today’s world would no longer be possible without adhesives. The market research institute Ceresana forecasts consumption of adhesives in Europe to increase to approximately 3.5 million tons in 2020.

Major Sales Market Germany
Thanks to its sound economic structure, Germany will remain the largest European sales market for adhesives. France, Italy, and the United Kingdom follow at a considerable distance. Especially Russia, Poland, and Turkey will profit from increasing domestic consumption. “We expect dynamic growth rates of up to, on average, 4.2 percent p.a. for Eastern Europe in particular,” said Oliver Kutsch, CEO of Ceresana.

Differences in Development Following the Economic Crisis
Different development in individual countries is apparent in the applications of adhesives in particular. The sectors construction and automobiles were hit hardest by the effects of the crisis. In EU countries suffering from high debt, these segments will remain weakened since there is but little scope for business activity support programs. Other countries, however, will be able to support their construction sectors through investment programs.

Relocation of Automotive Preproduction
The automotive industry is one of the most important applications for adhesives. A clear trend can be observed in this segment: Due to better preconditions for production, upstream production processes are relocating from Western to Eastern Europe, e.g. Russia. Plants in Western Europe, however, largely remain in existence.

The tendency in production processes is shifting towards solvent-free environment-friendly adhesives, as they are becoming more popular. This process is more advanced in Western Europe, but Eastern Europe is also increasingly utilizing alternative products due to their trade connections.

The Study in Brief:

Chapter 1: Analysis of the European adhesive market, including forecasts up to 2020. Demand and production are analyzed, as are revenues, import and export. 25 European countries are examined in detail: valuable data and influential factors on demand development are given. The demand in the most important countries is explained and analyzed in detail. Application areas analyzed include: paper, packaging, construction industry, wood processing, transportation and consumer goods. Other applications include products for the electrical and electronics industry, technical textiles, sports goods, toys and medical applications.