Players’ predictions about the market’s trend in 2014 vary from slight growth to contraction by as much as 10%.
“Sales were operated only on the basis of demand coming from people building houses amid the lack of major projects,” said Bogdan Roman, general manager of expanded polystyrene producer Hirsch Porozell, the local subsidiary of Austria’s group Hirsch Servo AG.
In his turn, Marcel Barbut, the businessman who controls building material producer AdePlast, says that after a promising year-start the market suffered significant contractions.
“In late August we felt a deicing of our field and we hope delayed works move well and even get completed in autumn,” says Barbut.
However, some producers, such as Austrotherm, part of Austria’s Schmid Industrie Holding, say that, despite dwindling investments on the real estate market and the falling number of thermal rehabilitation projects, the polystyrene market registered a slight increase in the first nine months of this year against the year-earlier period.
“The main factors that supported sales were worked started and completed this spring-summer. To a lesser extent, sales were also supported by the new works started this summer,” says Dan Cascaval, Austrotherm brand manager. He expects the polystyrene market to rise by 5% this year.
Hirsch Porozell’s Roman estimates the market will contract by as much as 10% this year, while AdePlast’s Barbut says the market will stagnate at best.
The expanded polystyrene market reached 2.6 million cubic meters last year, while extruded polystyrene posted sales of 290,000 cubic meters, according to Austrotherm’s previous estimates.
With regard to 2015, Dan Cascaval maintains that discontinued projects and the plunging funds earmarked by the government for the rehabilitation of old buildings and blocks of flats can lead to market contraction next year. Hirsch Porozell’s Roman is of the same opinion.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)