GIA announces the release of a comprehensive global report on Nanomaterials market. Although the recession cancelled out the overly optimistic expectations and heady growth patterns of yesteryears, global market for nanomaterials is nevertheless expected to regain sufficient poise to reach US$6.2 billion by the year 2015. Recovery in growth will largely be driven by resurgence in venture capital funding of R&D projects, continued fervor of academic research in nanotech and development of new application possibilities in end-use sectors, such as, construction, automotive, defense and energy. Sturdy demand outlook in the healthcare sector, and encouraging demand from Asia-Pacific region also augur well for the market.
The impact of the economic recession has been diverse and disproportionate, among industries across the globe, with some smarting from the heat and dust raised by the economic turmoil, while others crumbled under the pressure. The unusually pronounced length and depth of the current recession has had even high-end disruptive technologies like nanotechnology succumbing to the economic pressure making the industry no longer a safe haven. The reverberating impact of the recession across the nanotechnology value chain is undeniable. Economic and financial hardships imposed by the downturn have tripped up sales of nano-enabled products thus sending knock-on effects up the supply chain to the nanomaterials market.
A mixed bag of blessings and challenges for was largely witnessed with end-use industries like healthcare withstanding the pressure, while application areas in industries like construction and automotive flattened out. Steep declines in construction activity, reduced new housing starts and fall in sales of new automobiles have brought out the construction and automotive industries as the two major causalities of the recession. Decline in demand for nano-enabled products in the automotive industry, such as, nano-enabled automotive lubricants, catalytic converters, sensors and filters, among others, frustrated market opportunities for nanomaterials used in this application area, such as multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) and ceramic nanoparticles. Additionally, culling of disruptive product development projects involving nanotechnology by companies battered by financial hardships and reduced budgets for R&D, lengthens the technology adoption cycle, thus impacting demand for nano-materials, such as, ceramic nanomaterials, which are often core for various functional applications.
