Despite what have been an extraordinarily volatile four years
in the plastics business, the World Plastics Annual Study
produced by ICIS highlights that opportunities in emerging
markets will continue to drive growth.
Product development is another factor that will infl uence
global market improvements.
But current overcapacity will last for at least a few more
years. The World Plastics Annual Study sees this as a
serious threat for producers in terms of achievable margins.
“The non-integrated players, and those with old or
badly-located plants, are obviously the most-exposed”,
says the study.
Macroeconomic challenges that have to be dealt with will
include bringing government spending under control in the
West and China’s efforts to rebalance its economy away
from investment and towards domestic consumption.
The opportunities, though, need to be kept in perspective –
no matter how distracting these shorter-term diffi culties can
be for sales and marketing executives at the sharp end of
struggling to meet their targets.
The south Asia and Pacifi c region serves as a good
example.
“This region still has one of the lowest per capita
consumption rates of the analysed polymers*: Only 9.8kg
in 2011 versus more than 65kg in North America, 61kg in
Europe and 45kg in northeast Asia,” says the study.