Report: PVC Products Bring $20 Billion Value to Consumers

ARLINGTON, Va., Feb. 2, 2009 – The total direct and indirect benefits of consumer access to PVC in the United States and Canada in 2007 amounted to more than $20 billion.  

This is the conclusion of "The Economic Benefits of Polyvinyl Chloride in the United States and Canada," a report recently released by Whitfield & Associates for the Chlorine Chemistry Division of the American Chemistry Council and The Vinyl Institute.  

According to the report, U.S. and Canadian consumers would have to spend $17.7 billion to substitute alternative products for the PVC products they currently use, plus an additional $2.8 billion per year in capital recovery charges that producers of the substitute materials would need to pass on to consumers due to new investments they would need to make in order to manufacture the incremental volume of substitute material.  

The report also noted PVC consumption in the United States and Canada reached almost 14.2 billion pounds in 2007.  

Some other highlights from the report: 
 

• About 75 percent of PVC resin consumption is fabricated into construction products, much of that used in PVC pipe and tubing products (more than 48 percent of all PVC consumption in the United States and Canada).
  
  
• Rigid PVC pipe, tubing, and fittings provide an estimated $9.5 billion in direct economic benefits to consumers, with nearly 55 percent coming in the area of pressure water pipe.  About 47 percent of the cost of substitution is associated with the increased costs of other materials, and the rest from increased costs to install, maintain, repair, and replace pipe of alternative materials.
   
• Vinyl siding, accessories, and skirting provide more than $4 billion in value.  Many traditional alternative materials are much more expensive -- on the order of five times the cost of vinyl.  Vinyl siding's market share of new single-family homes is 70 percent in the Northeast and Midwest where more severe climates are prevalent.
   
  
• Nearly 60 million doors and windows with vinyl framing are installed annually in the United States and Canada.  Costs of windows are dominated by the costs of glass, assembly, and installation, but increased costs would be incurred from switching to materials that require more maintenance and earlier replacement.
   
• More than 175 million pounds of PVC per year with a value of approximately $200 million is fabricated into the small diameter flexible tubing used in medical applications for fluid and air transfer.  PVC is the material of choice in these applications because it is optically clearer than most alternatives, kink resistant, can be radio-frequency heat sealed, withstands steam sterilization, and resists "necking down," or constricting when pulled.  Blood stored in PVC bags has a longer shelf life than blood stored in alternative types of blood bags.

  
This report on the economic benefits of PVC analyzes all major PVC markets, and what would be required to substitute alternative materials, along with the disadvantages of such substitutions to manufacturers and consumers.  The PVC report is one of nine reports of essential end use applications for chlorine-based products.  All told, the use of chlorine chemistry in these applications represents an annual benefit to consumers of over $634 billion.  

To access "The Economic Benefits of Polyvinyl Chloride in The United States and Canada," go to the American Chemistry Council website.  

Links to other economic case studies of chlorine chemistry applications can be found here at www.americanchemistry.com.  

The Vinyl Institute represents the leading manufacturers involved in the production of PVC vinyl in the United States, and promotes the value of PVC and vinyl products to society.   

For more information, contact:
Jeffrey B. Palmer
Director of Marketing & Communications
The Vinyl Institute
(703) 741-5669
jeff_palmer@plastics.org   

Also go to: www.vinylindesign.com and www.vinylinfo.org.