Plastic container manufacturers to enjoy growth
November 27, 2012 at 5:55 PM
The demand for plastic containers in America looks to continue unabated and in fact is forecast to grow 4.9% each year to a massive $32.4 billion by 2016. To meet this huge growth in demand, plastic container manufacturers will need to use 14.2 billion pounds of plastic resin.
The growth in demand is thought to be driven by inherent advantages over other types of packaging as well the overall US economy's recovery after the recent recession. Other predictions are that the average weight of each plastic container will keep falling, implying a preference for smaller, one-serving containers in many food and drink markets. Reducing the weight of plastic containers also helps towards reducing raw material usage and promotes sustainability.
Plastic container manufacturers will see stiffening competition from flexible packaging such as pouches but these are likely to be in addition to, rather than a replacement for, rigid containers.
PET and high-density polyethylene appear to be the dominant plastic resins used by container manufacturers and these accounted for a combined 86% of demand last year.
More than three quarters of plastic container poundage in 2011 was represented by jars and bottles, making them easily the leading plastic container type; in under 5 years time, the specific demand for plastic bottles and jars is predicted to rise 2.8% per year to 165 billion units. And although, the manufacture of bottles grew substantially between 2001 and 2006 (mainly from rocketing bottled water purchases), it is expected that there'll be a slowdown in bottled water growth, largely due to environmental considerations. Having said that, gains could be made, helped out by the predicted growth in single-serving drinks containers. But by far the biggest growers in the bottle and jar markets are expected to be in the pharmaceutical as well as food industries.
As well as this good news for plastic container manufacturers, there could also be a boost int he demand for plastic buckets, assuming the long awaited recovery in the construction industries materialises, specifically from the increased demand for paints and glues etc.
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