PETpla.net Insider 09 / 2015

MARKET SURVEY 38 PET planet insider Vol. 16 No. 09/15 www.petpla.net PET packaging North America North America is a typical converter market. Transport costs, especially in the USA, are still very low, not least because of the low cost of fuel. This means that the empty PET bottles are transported to the fillers. Inline opera- tions (stretch blow moulding / filling) are in the minority. Further reasons for this are probably the frequent changes of format where the CSD products are concerned which would lead to significantly longer downtimes as regards inline operations. Also, there are in North America, in addition to the major converters, a large number of small blow moulding operations that naturally have no interest in abandon- ing their present structure. However, in the case of the mineral water bottlers, things are somewhat different; there is a preference for the inline operation especially where the weight optimised small bottle is concerned. Another example is the technique practised by the Portuguese company Logo- plaste, which supplies the bottler with PET bottles exclusively by means of the “through the wall process”. This is possible by installing their own blow moulding machines in the customer’s bottling plant. In the CSD sector growth is very restrained or even in decline. Inter- estingly, the reasons for this lie in the fact that the Americans are becoming more and more health-conscious and increasingly limiting their consump- tion of soft drinks. At the same time drinking habits are also changing. Whereas, a few years ago, there was a predominance of the 2 litre PET bottles, the trend today is towards the smaller beverage bottles. Figures based on experience and obtained from major market players show that the average size of a bottle has already fallen to 1.2l. A crumb of com- fort for the converters who are able, through higher quantities, to compen- sate to a degree. There is a diffrence to the mineral water sector. Here the figures have seen an encouraging rise over the last few years, even featuring two digit figures from time to time. However, according to Euro- monitor, this trend is not set to last. Even now the market is having to con- tent itself with growth rates in single figures and will have to go on doing so over the next few years. There has been some growth in the sector incorporating sports drinks, juices and tea-based drinks in PET applica- tions, but this will also need to adjust to lower growth over the next few years. It is hot fill applications that are predominantly deployed in this area. There are scarcely any instances of aseptic bottling to be found. The reasons for this lie in the multiplicity of stretch blow moulding machines on the market where conversion to hot fill applications represents a consider- ably more attractive proposition than investing in new aseptic filling lines. PET jars may be described as a niche market. The volumes are rela- tively small and growth is only moder- ate. The reasons for this lie partly in the structure of the market itself; there are large numbers of extrusion blow moulding operations that supply the market with reasonably priced PP and HDPE bottles. Even though the PET material is very good value for money at the moment, it is unlikely that replacement will proceed at anything but at a very slow pace. Beverage packaging Canada and USA Retail/off trade unit volume in millions Type of packaging 2012 2013 2014 Canada Total packaging 18.005 18.124 18.241 Rigid plastic 4.174 4.396 4.537 PET bottles 4.028 4.228 4.350 PET jars 7.2 7.1 7 USA Total packaging 196.334 198.116 198.732 Rigid plastic 77.515 80.856 82.468 PET bottles 75.220 78.460 80.040 PET jars 89.2 89.6 86.3