Synthetic resins and their raw materials / A survey of the types and uses of synthetic resins, the organization of the industry, and the trade in resins and raw materials, with particular references to factors essential to tariff consideration. Under the general provisions of section 332, title III, part II, Tariff act of 1930.

by United States Tariff Commission

Competition between synthetic resins.

Any particular synthetic resin must compete for its market with other synthetic resins, as well as with other materials. The basis of choice or substitution will be the same as that which has already been briefly discussed in connection with the displacement of other materials by resins. As between a number of resins with properties fitting them for a particular use, the total costs of using each will be compared and the choice will go to the least expensive; but where a resin has special advantages in a particular use it may win out over a less expensive resin.

It should be emphasized that this battle of materials for markets is a never-ending one. The fact that a specific synthetic resin has achieved a certain position is no guarantee that it may not lose it wholly or in part to some newer resin or other material. Thus cast phenolic resin was for a time the only resin available in light colors but urea resins became available in pastel shades and more recently water-clear polystyrene and acrylate resins have come on the market. Until recently tar-acid resins were without competition in laminating, but urea resins now are used to some extent for the surface laminae and the tar-acid resins now face a potential threat in a new product offered to laminators. If the use of this cellulose sheet, which looks much like blotting paper and which has lignin incorporated in it to act as a binder in the press, should materially decrease the cost of laminated sheets, it will mean serious new competition for the tar-acid laminating resins.

The general effect of the increase in number of types of synthetic resin has been to modify the market outlook of the producers of each type. They are now more inclined to view the market as being limited by the price at which they can supply their product and by the physical properties of each resin rather than attempt to exploit it as a universal resin for all purposes.