Increased manufacturing and investment in commercial facilities will drive the flat glass market in the Middle East and Africa to grow at 8.2 per cent to hit $3.2 billion in 2018, a rate higher than North America and Europe, a report said.

Globally, demand for flat glass is forecast to advance 6.6 per cent per annum to nearly 10 billion sq m in 2018, valued at $102 billion, according to the World Flat Glass, a new study from The Freedonia Group, a US-based industry market research firm.

The pace of gains will accelerate relative to the 2008-2013 period, with the largest improvements expected in the developed countries of Western Europe and North America, the report said.

In particular, rebounds in building construction activity in many countries in these regions will support rising demand for flat glass in architectural applications.

“The fastest gains are expected in developing countries, and China is expected to continue to be the world’s fastest growing market for flat glass through 2018,” said analyst Elliott Woo.

The architectural market will remain the largest source of demand for flat glass in 2018, comprising 42 per cent of the total in value terms.  But the fastest growth will be in other markets, driven by rising manufacture of higher value products like electronic displays, said Woo.

The Asia/Pacific region is by far the largest regional market for flat glass, accounting for 52 per cent of global demand in value terms in 2013.  The region is also expected to see the fastest gains through 2018, benefiting from the presence of five of the six fastest growing national markets for flat glass worldwide:  China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand.  Within the Asia/Pacific region, China is the dominant flat glass consumer, representing 58 per cent of the regional total on a value basis.

North America and Europe will continue to trail the global average in flat glass demand through 2018, although recovery from the recessionary conditions of the 2008-2013 period will lead to stronger performances going forward.

Demand in Eastern Europe will outpace that in Western Europe, thanks largely to a pronounced acceleration in motor vehicle production.  Gains in demand for flat glass in North America and Europe will be constrained by the shifting dynamics of global manufacturing, as producers of a wide variety of glass-consuming products are expected to site more operations in developing regions. – TradeArabia News Service