Europe Facing Growing Threat from Middle East Resin

Representing close to 17,000 KT of annual polyethylene consumption, European plastic processors continue to struggle with global economic instability, tightened credit and loss of market share to countries like Turkey, India and Indonesia. At the same time, resin suppliers to this diverse region are facing an onslaught of competition from imported resin, as much of the HDPE/LLDPE resin that will be exported from the Middle East, Central/Eastern Europe and Central/South America threatens to make its way into Western Europe at delivered costs below that of Western European producers. Learn more...TOP OF PAGE

Repositioning Sales Staff Key to Plastic Market Success

Have you ever met a sales manager that had enough sales coverage? Neither have we! But we’re helping managers analyze the plastic manufacturing market to reposition their lean staff and justify added sales staff.

Townsend has researched and profiled over 1200 Film Extruders throughout the Americas. Understanding these extruders was key to helping Townsend’s client reposition existing sales staff to increase profits and recommend additional sales coverage for growth opportunities.

Key to our client’s understanding was the number of plant locations per state, resin volume at each plant, resin volume by application and state. Armed with data sliced in every way possible, sales opportunities were grouped into four quadrants: high volume-high growth, low volume-high growth, high volume-low growth and low volume-low growth.

Sales staff was matched according to the experience needed to maximize the value of each of the four market segments.

Opportunities were provided to each sales member showing each plant’s detailed resin throughput, suppliers and contact details for key personnel. Knowing resin volumes and applications was key to the success of the sales team.

With each success, Townsend’s client is building it’s case to hire additional sales people where opportunities warrant the expense. TOP OF PAGE

PBP is the most in-depth and comprehensive market intelligence on the plastics processing industry

With detailed profiles on over 45,000 plastic processing plants, PBP is the most in-depth and comprehensive market intelligence on the plastics processing industry

Interested in learning more about film converters in China...or pipe producers in the Middle East... or food packaging manufacturers in Europe?

Need to analyze under-the-hood automotive applications in Germany or the thermoforming market in Central America?

Considering targeting a competitor who just announced a plant shutdown, or want to talk to customers of a competitor who is under going significant change?

Need to find potential customers buying between 25,000 and 4 million pounds annually of resins such as PP, PE, PET, etc. in a 15 state area of the United States?

PBP is a data rich 'blueprint' of the plastics processing marketplace - all over the world. Plant level details on manufacturing processes utilized, raw materials consumed, shipping methods, primary processing equipment, industries served and products manufactured make Townsend's PBP the best source for in-depth and comprehensive data on the plastic processing industry today. Take a free PBP test drive today. TOP OF PAGE

Taking a Closer Look at the PVC Market

With PVC demand down, it’s no wonder that buyers and suppliers are taking a close look at the market for PVC. According to the American Chemistry Council, US/Canada PVC demand is down 12% for the year (through August 2009). Sales and captive use of PVC are sitting at 9.7 billion pounds, through August 2009.

With demand down, PVC resin production is down 10.9 %, per the ACC. Therefore compounders and resin suppliers alike want to understand their market share to determine their strategy going forward.

In a survey of 1845 PVC resin buyers throughout US & Canada, Townsend revealed that PVC purchases are split about 50/50 between resin processors and resin compounders.

What types of PVC resin are in demand? In US & Canada, 93% of PVC resin sold is suspension homopolymer, 3% is disperson or paste resin, while 2% is suspension copolymer and the remaining 2% is undefined.

Formosa is the leading supplier of Suspension PVC-resins with 25% market share, followed by Shintech, OxyVinyls, Georgia Gulf, Westlake, Certainteed, Polyone, SABIC and others.

The majority of PVC resin is still processed for the pipe, conduit and tubing markets. Forty-eight percent of all PVC resin sold in the US & Canada is for these markets. Another 14% is used for window & door profiles, 22% is compounded, while the remaining 16% of the market is split amongst several markets.

PVC-Compound supply is lead by distributors with 23% market share, followed by Georgia Gulf, compounders, Polyone, Shintech, Formosa and other suppliers.

PVC-Compound is converted predominantly by the following processes: pipe/conduit/tubing (25%), profile (23%), injection molding (10%), compounding (10%) and wire & cable (9%).

By looking at the PVC market share by resin, supplier, buyer type, process, market, application and state or province, suppliers are making strategic decisions about their business. TOP OF PAGE