Global Demand for Plastics Processing Machinery to Approach $25 Billion

Global demand for plastics processing machinery is forecast to climb 4.7 percent annually through 2012 to almost $25 billion.  Product sales will be spurred by ongoing economic growth and rising personal income levels, resulting in increased plastics product consumption, processing activity and associated equipment demand.  These and other trends, including market share and product segmentation, are presented in World Plastics Processing Machinery, a new study from The Freedonia Group, Inc., a Cleveland-based industry research firm.

Product sales in developing parts of Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America will outpace demand in the developed countries of the US, Western Europe and Japan through 2012.  Advances will be stimulated by healthy economic growth, ongoing industrialization efforts and higher per capita income in these developing areas.  China will post the largest gains of any national market, with plastics processing equipment demand in the country rising by over $1.6 billion from 2007 to 2012, when China will account for close to one-fourth of the global market.  Two of the other three BRIC nations -- India and Russia -- will also record strong advances, while machinery sales growth in Brazil will be more subdued, due in part to the double-digit annual increases in demand that have been registered in recent years.  Gains are expected to be healthy as well in lower-volume markets such as the Czech Republic, Iran, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Vietnam.

Plastics processing equipment demand in developed parts of the world will expand as well, although growth will be much less robust than in developing countries.  Product sales will be driven by generally favorable economic conditions and further increases in plastics processing activity in developed areas, bolstering demand for plastics processing machinery as fixed investment activity climbs.

Extrusion equipment will post the strongest gains of any major product type through 2012, benefitting from growth in global construction spending, which will fuel demand for extruded goods like pipe and siding, as well as by further advances in extrusion technology, resulting in increased sales of higher priced, more productive machinery.  Demand for reaction injection molding, rotomolding, and rapid prototyping and manufacturing machinery, which does not require the use of molds and can replace injection molding in some low-volume applications, will also grow rapidly.  However, injection molding equipment will continue to account for almost two-fifths of the 2012 plastics processing machinery market total, benefitting from the greater accuracy, energy efficiency, flexibility and output of newer generations of equipment.

The Freedonia Group is a leading international business research company, founded in 1985, that publishes more than 100 industry research studies annually. This industry analysis provides an unbiased outlook and a reliable assessment of an industry and includes product segmentation and demand forecasts, industry trends, demand history, threats and opportunities, competitive strategies, market share determinations and company profiles.