Nowadays, many automobile manufacturing companies are exploring different methods for manufacturing lightweight vehicles in order to maximize the power and speed of the automobile. Composites, aluminum, and plastic are some of the most widely used lightweight materials by automakers in the region. Adhesives and sealants are used along with these materials for maintaining the integrity of lightweight automobiles. Furthermore, many organizations are producing bio-based sealants and adhesives for replacing the usage of the chemical-based adhesives and sealants.
For instance, the RENUVA technology was developed by DowDuPont Inc. for adhesives and sealants and it offers various benefits that cover several applications such as greater water resistance, good adhesion on various substrates, and improved flexibility. These technologies are predicted to create lucrative growth opportunities for the players operating in the APAC automotive adhesives and sealants market in the future years. Based on type, the market is divided into acrylics, epoxy, rubber, polyurethanes, silicones, hot melts, and PVC.
Out of these, the epoxy category is predicted to register the fastest growth in the market in the forthcoming years. This will be because of the superior properties of these adhesives over the others such as higher surface hardness, excellent heat-resistance, high temperature stability, good dimensional stability, fire-resistance, low flammability, and cost-effectiveness. The APAC automotive adhesives and sealants market is also classified, on the basis of application, into under-the-hood (UTH) and power train, assembly, paint shop, and body-in-white (BIW).
Amongst these, the BIW category recorded huge growth in the market in the past years. This was because of the large-scale usage of polyurethane, acrylics, and epoxy during the automobile manufacturing process. In the future, the assembly application will exhibit the fastest growth in the market, because of the soaring automobile manufacturing in the regional countries for meeting the rising demand for vehicles, on account of the surging purchasing power of people.
China currently holds the highest value share in the APAC automotive adhesives and sealants market. The country accounted for over 50.0% of the shares in the market in 2017. China is a developing economy and is currently the biggest country in the world based on purchasing power parity. In addition to this, nearly all leading global adhesives and sealants developing organizations have their production facilities in the country. This is further boosting the advancement of the market in this country.
