The 4th PVC4cable conference, Prague, October 16, gave the opportunity for Benvic Marketing Manager, Eric Grange to give a comprehensive account of the threats and opportunities currently facing the European PVC Cable Industry. Particular focus was given to the urgent need to develop best recycling and circularity practices for this industry in the coming years.
Insight
On the plus side the European PVC industry is currently overcoming obstacles and hedging its growth issues by switching compounding production to Central and Eastern Europe. Lower costs prevail there and legislative constraints have yet to fully catch up with the pace being set by the EU and its CPR regulations.
Until some two years ago the PVC cable market had relied on strong and predictable growth in Western European via economies such as Germany and France. Recent events, however, have seen those economies stall and helped facilitate the current production switch to Eastern Europe.
Benvic’s Poland subsidiary, for example, operates in Europe’s biggest PVC cabling market (13%) and has seen a significant upturn for its PVC compounding expertise and production over the past two years. Grange presented additional and contextual case study material at the October 16 event, featuring the Polish PVC economy and confirming a trend in growth in that market that far exceeds current production in Western Europe
However, will present significant challenges for Europe’s PVC cable markets – something Benvic is currently preparing for and investing in throughout its company networks.
PVC, noted Grange, is still the most used thermoplastic in cabling, with around 43% market share, mainly in the low voltage sector. However, the material has been challenged in recent years, mainly via new building regulations (CPR) and therefore opening up opportunities for alternative polyolefin-based Halogen Free Flame Retarded (HFFR) compounds – particularly popular in construction, telecoms and the electrical infrastructure. At the same time, some key industries – such as automotive and white goods - are restating a hungry demand for PVC based cabling solutions.
At the same time, forthcoming EU regulatory challenges include:
Aside from market segment regulation, future restrictions for PVC include:
All of these regulations are likely to imply and proscribe recycled content and recycling practices of various kinds.
In addition, the EU will pursue the removal of certain legacy additives from the PVC cable compound mix. Grange pointed out that circularity cannot be achieved by simply recycling end-of-life PVC cables into the future cable compound mix. A further stage of additive extraction must be applied.
This complication challenges the traditional recycling mind set which assumes a like for like substitution of virgin material with post-consumer recyclate (PCR).
‘This is limitative,’ noted Eric. ‘All basic constituents can be a path for recycling content: resin, plasticizers and fillers. Then, a specific strategy need to be developed depending on the cable compound grade: whether this be for insulation, bedding or sheathing.’ Eric added that ‘mechanical recycling can provide elegant solutions especially in providing feedstocks from short life cycle products. In these cases, legacy additives are not a problem as the initial products are already compliant. This is the first set of options where Benvic is engaging solutions.’
Eric reiterated the fact that ‘simply having recycled content does not solve the current paradigm: All existing PVC compounds from current cables need to find an outlet into circularity. This is a reason why legacy additive extraction process at the industrial scale is a must now. Otherwise, there is no alternative to ensure that PVC will remain a key material for cables.’
Further bottle necks for the industry are also linked to cable standards. Feedstock changes, and possible variations lead to the revision of standards and quality rules in order to maintain performance, quality & availability.
To help re-establish and reset the industry, therefore it was noted that all supply chain stakeholders need to work together in order to meet the challenges of the circular economy.
Benvic is centrally placed for this role:
PVC compounding is the company’s key activity
In summarising, Eric thanked the organisers of the PVC4cable conference, not simply for the event itself but for creating the opportunity to ensure that the PVC and cable industries can work together to meet their mutual and upcoming challenges.
