One-piece designs lead closure growth
The European plastics caps and closures market amounted to 217 billion units in 2007, representing a value of €215bn, according to the latest study of the sector by UK market analysis group AMI.
Total production of plastics caps and closures has grown at a rate of around 6% a year over the past three years, says AMI. However, production of one-piece closures has expanded at a rate of 9% a year over the same period and this style now accounts for 64% of the standard beverage closure market. One-piece closures accounted for 55% of this market sector in 2004.
Cost reduction and light-weighting initiatives lie behind the move to one-piece closure designs, says AMI.
The beverage sector accounted for 64% of European closure production in 2007. AMI predicts that growth rates of around 4% a year will be seen in this market up to 2012. Key drivers will be the expansion of still sport and juice drink markets and substitution of cans by single-trip PET containers.
Plastics closure consumption will also benefit from the growing market for beer in PET in eastern Europe. In fact, AMI predicts that the countries of eastern Europe will see closure consumption grow at around 8% a year to 2012 against a 3% rate in the more mature western markets. Western European producers will, it says, focus more on non-standard and sports designs.
Custom closures, including non-standard diameters, sports caps and carton mechanisms, continue to present the greatest opportunity to add value.
European closure producers consumed 770,000 tonnes of polymer during 2007. PP accounted for 55% of this volume, with PE and PE/EVA based resins accounting for 44%.
AMI says one-piece closure growth has helped PE/EVA gain a five percentage point share on PP since 2004. For the same reason, it predicts PE will see 5% per year growth to 2012 against a 2% rate for PP.
www.amiplastics.com