GLOBAL MARKET OUTLOOK FOR PLASTIC FILMS
SPE SOCIETY OF PLASTICS ENGINEERS EUROPE
CONFERENCE ON ADVANCES IN EXTRUSION TECHNOLOGY
OCTOBER 29, 2007, K’2007, DÜSSELDORF

Françoise Pardos, Pardos Marketing

Film consumption summary

A tentative summary (Table 3) of the estimates for global film consumption gives, for 2007, 61 million tons, including the substrates of multilayers and some non plastic flexible materials, such as associated foil and paper.

Geographical /economical consumption split

Out of these totals, the consumption split between the major geographical/economical areas of the world closely follows that of the plastics total, in the same proportions as for the main commodities.

These relative proportions are blurring, as more and more films are transported over deep sea international trade, reels are easy to carry. Film consumption means where the raw materials are extruded, and not where they end up for use by industrial or distribution customers.

As a very general rule of thumb, the film consumption in Europe and in North America are about equivalent, and together account for about 60 % of total world consumption, dwindling down to 50 % in the next five years.

The relative consumption of North America and Europe is more important for the higher value materials and films, multilayers, barriers, metallized, as most of the rest of the world is less sophisticated and diversified, but it is catching up very fast.

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