World Stainless Foil Market to Double to 18,500T in 2015

World stainless foil (with less than 100 micrometers of thickness) market was 9,500 tonns in volume and 25 billion yen in value in 2010, according to Fuji Keizai, Japanese marketing research company. The market is expected to increase by 10.5% to 10,500 tonnes in 2011 from 2010 and by 8% to 27 billion yen in value. Fuji Keizai forecasts the market continues expansion trend, which would increase by 94.7% to 18,500 tonnes in 2015 from 2010 or 45.5 billion yen in value.

By applications, 36.8% of the total demand was for automotive and motorcycle exhaust catalysts, 13.7% was for tactile switches and dome switches, and 7.4% was for suspensions of hard disk drives (HDDs) in weight. The market is expanding for automotive and motorcycle exhaust catalysts in China and South East Asia, where gas emission controls are started and automotive sales are strongly increasing under growing economy.

The market is decreasing for tactile switches and dome switches when the market of handheld devices is replacing to smart phones from conventional cell phones. The market is expanding for HDD suspensions adopted to digital televisions and recorders.