Demand for artificial turf grew in 2009
10 May, 2010 Athletic Turf NewsBRISTOL, U.K. — Despite the challenging economic environment global demand for artificial turf grew in 2009, according to a recently published study by Applied Market Information Ltd (AMI).
“Sports governing bodies, as well as local and central government, saw good sense in continuing to invest in improved facilities in 2009,” said the report’s author, John Nash. “Most producers, with the exception of some North Americans, were quite pleased with the final outcome of 2009, despite a slow start to the artificial turf season.”
While many will remember the pitches they played on as kids and think artificial turf is a niche market, today’s reality is quite different. Gone are the hard surfaces that caused friction burns and impact injuries, and in their place are controlled slide and defined energy restitution.
Changing product design has brought synthetic turf into the mainstream of surfaces used for both sports and landscaping applications. The industry now accounts for over 771,000 U.S. tons of product, ranging from the polymers used for the grass carpet through the elastomeric rubber infill to the underlay. The market value of the grass carpet alone is estimated at $1.972 billion in the United States, about €1.3 billion in UK Pounds and $1.5 billion Euro in Europe.
By 2013, the total is expected to exceed $3 billion in the United States, $2.3 billion in Europe and €2 billion in the United Kingdom.
The grass yarns are made from polyethylene, polypropylene and polyamide, and they are fast developing not only in terms of the performance of the polymer, but also the shape of the yarns and their bonding into the backing tape, whether by styrene butadiene, latex or polyurethane. The infill that has become predominant is styrene butadiene rubber, sourced from grinding up and recycling car tires, but new thermoplastic elastomers are being offered that address specific requirements. A more recent focus for development is the underlay, or shock pad, which is becoming increasingly important to the performance of the system as a whole.
Industry participants have been investing strongly in new products, additional capacity and the reshaping of their channels to market. IFor example, investments by FieldTurf Tarkett have greatly reduced its reliance on outsourcing. Alongside these commercial developments, as predicted by AMI in its 2007 report, there is also substantial M&A activity as participants use mergers and acquisitions to build and reshape their businesses. The last 18 months have seen major acquisitions involving TenCate Thiolon, TigerTurf, Shaw Industies, Sportexe and "private equity" backed purchases of STI (APT), Nexcel and others.
Supply and demand in the market needs to be seen in a geographically global context partly because of the trade flows in the various components, but also because participation strategiesare increasingly global in their implementation.
The artificial turf market in 2009 breakdown by region, according to AMI Consulting, is as follows: South America 4%, Oceania 4%, Europe 49%, NAFTA 19%, Near East 10%, Far East 14%.
"The Global Artificial Grass Market 2009" is a detailed multi-client research report published in March 2010. For further information, contact John Nash at AMI: jsn@amiplastics.com or +44 117 924 9442.
 | Article
Driving Daytona 1 Sep, 2000 |
| Article
The hole story on aerating 1 Jul, 2001 | |
 | Article
LM Week in Review: Athletic Turf 24 Jun, 2002 |
| Article
Upheavals mark seed trade 1 Aug, 2002 | |
| Article
Prep your fields for spring 1 Jan, 2003 | |
| Article
LM WiR: Turf Management 28 Mar, 2003 | |
Please send any technical comments or questions to our webmaster.