Tetra Pak has recently launched a range of products in the hot melt adhesives market, in partnership with Henkel. A UAE-based company called Lacnor trialled the new hot melt adhesives, for manufacturing fruit juice and dairy. This company was selected due to its location near to Dubai and because it is also a prominent customer for Tetra Pak.
"Over the course of the two month trial Lacnor reported a 37% reduction in adhesive consumption and a 49% reduction in maintenance costs," Klas Wimmerstedt, director Parts, Consumables and Upgrade Services, Tetra Pak told FoodProductionDaily. "The saving in maintenance costs resulted primarily from a major reduction in jams in the application unit. The trial was performed across three packaging lines and these results would translate into annual saving of more than $100k across all customer packaging lines, far in excess of the additional cost of the new adhesive."
These new hot melt adhesives have been specifically created for Tetra Pak's own filling machines, with the company stating that there are a number of benefits that users of these adhesives can gain. From relatively low maintenance costs, a lower consumption level of adhesives, as well as improved bonding attributes.
The global hot melt adhesives market is expected to total US$7.5bn by 2019, with a relatively strong CAGR of 6% projected over the next four years. The Asia-Pacific hot melt adhesives market is currently forecast to be the fastest-growing region, thanks to the rapidly growing countries of China and India. Although the Asia-Pacific market is growing at a fast rate it is still only the second biggest region globally and accounts for 30% of the global market share.
India's massive population, combined with its quickly developing economy, is helping drive this country to be one of the fastest-growing globally in the hot melt adhesives market. The polyolefins segment of the industry is rising at the fastest rate, with Europe and North America consuming over 60% of the products in this market.
The single largest end user industry is the packaging sector, as this segment uses the most hot melt adhesives. The North American region controls around 40% of this sector, as of 2013, with the US, Mexico and Canada being the most advanced markets of hot melt adhesives for the packaging industry. As countries around the world continue to become industrialised the global hot melt adhesives market is expected to rise considerably.