Domestic Application

PRIORITIES:

The domestic applications in the segment include pipes for hot & cold water, sewage, conduits and ventilation. This market realizes a healthy growth (6.2% globally), which is driven by new residential and institutional buildings (urbanization). More and more installers understand the advantage of plastic pipes over traditional materials like copper and ductile iron.

The market is looking for system cost reduction advantages. This will be achieved by new multi-layer pipe configurations, like better oxygen barrier properties, an increased lifetime, like higher temperature and pressure resistance, or easier installation (PEX plastic pipe with push fittings versus a traditional copper pipe).

For hot and cold water pipes, SABIC’s customers consider PPR as a preferred material, and SABIC has already established an important position with its PPR grades in this market. SABIC’s customers have been using these grades in hot water installations worldwide for over 35 years - an acknowledgement of the material’s high quality and dependability. Specialty compounds of PPR-GF or special colors allow customers for customizing more advanced pipe configurations.

SABIC sees PE-RT as a complement to PPR, for applications where more flexibility and higher impact resistance at low temperatures is required. For radiator connectors, where both metal and various plastics like polybutylene and PEX are used, PE-RT II offers a good balance of performance and total cost of ownership.