Although global demand for BOPP film took a nosedive in crisis-ridden 2008, growing at a mere 2% to 5.1m t, the market rebounded with a 6% growth rate in 2009, British market researcher Applied Market Information (AMI, Bristol / UK; www.amiplastics.com) found in an update to its multiclient report on the BOPP film industry. By the end of last year, global demand for BOPP film stood at 5.4m t. AMI is confident that the 2009 growth rates can be sustained in the coming years as well, mostly thanks to demand from Asia, eastern Europe, Russia and Brazil. With packaging now an essential tool of modern life, the global BOPP film market is set to benefit from the economic recovery, growing demand for packaged goods that can be effectively distributed and preserved and rising standards of food safety and hygiene.

Despite this rosy outlook, AMI points out that the sector also suffers from chronic over-investment, which has resulted in ongoing oversupply, weak pricing and poor returns. On a global scale, China is the largest BOPP market in terms of production and demand, and also the country where investment has been and continues to be highest. Yet, due to growing local demand AMI does not believe this new capacity will go into exports in the near future. Instead, the market researchers believe China’s impact on the global BOPP market will be felt in the export of finished goods or BOPP packaging.

The same cannot be said of the Middle East, which also has invested heavily in its BOPP film production. BOPP films produced here, AMI found, are more likely to be exported abroad since local markets are very small and the countries in question have good export infrastructures in place. Spurred by growing domestic demand, India is another country that has invested heavily in BOPP production in recent years. Although local BOPP demand is still one tenth of what it is in nearby China, the industry is driven by rapid economic growth and a rising middle class in need of better packaged food and consumer goods.

AMI’s study found that BOPP film manufacture is slowing in the more traditional markets of western Europe, North America and Japan. While players engaged in BOPP film manufacture in these countries continue to drive innovation, raw material and technology developments, they generally operate older and smaller lines at higher costs – one of the reasons why manufacturing increasingly shifts to countries like China and India.