PP&A ran a market and product attitudes assessment through expert interviews. In December 2019 the team completed eight in-depth interviews with people who specify, buy, produce or research PA6: a strategic purchaser of engineering plastics for electrical products, a former head of thermoplastics research at an automotive supplier, an automaker's lead for technical polymers, a former polyamide sales director at a major producer, the managing director of a European PA6 producer, a flexible packaging research veteran, a former innovation head at an industrial group in Brazil, and a former materials innovation director at a global apparel company.

The guide moved from each expert's sustainability agenda to the specific case: the value proposition of renewable caprolactam, customer demand and willingness to pay, acceptance of first-generation sugars against recycled feedstocks, the five- and ten-year outlook in Europe, reactions to a new supplier, and the joint development and partnership models that would support entry. PP&A wrote up each interview and consolidated the findings into a summary structured by sector, with a separate section on the sugar supply chain.

The study confirmed a market for bio-based PA6, but an early one. Buyers were skeptical about performance parity and about the robustness of a sugar-based supply chain in price, volume and reliability. A 10 percent premium emerged as the entry point, with up to 20 percent achievable in some industries and countries and 30 percent only for a very limited share of demand. Regulation, not corporate pledges, would be the true driver, with Europe expected to specify sustainable material content within five years. Interviewees advised a combined story of lower carbon emissions and bio-based content, because bio-based messaging alone would face the objection that food crops should not become plastics.

The sector picture was sharply differentiated. Automotive was the hardest sell: part performance came first, recyclability was the only sustainability attribute currently valued, carbon targets were being met through electrification, and about a third of PA6 applications were already at risk of substitution by polypropylene. Packaging was the readiest, with quick switching if price and quality were right, although the focus was shifting to recyclability and mono-material structures. Textiles held the strongest appetite for a premium, particularly mid-market and European brands. On supply, a sugar route could serve roughly 5 to 10 percent of current PA6 demand at existing feedstock levels, with a risk of speculation once sugar became a polymer feedstock. The client received a sector-by-sector view of demand, premiums and entry paths, from research and development contacts at tier suppliers to compounders and university testing, to decide whether and where to take renewable caprolactam next.

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