Plastics industry consultant Applied Market Information (AMI, Bristol / UK; www.amiplastics.com) has recently published its guide to the European thermoplastic profile extrusion market. The sector accounts for around 5% of total polymer demand in Europe and involves almost 900 companies – the guide provides information on their plant locations, activities, products, technologies and capacities. The profile extrusion sector covered by the report relates primarily to the manufacture of rigid profiles for the production of window, door and conservatory frames but includes a variety of other products including shutters, cladding, furniture and automotive components, ducting, curtain tracks and a variety of other consumer, industrial and building products.

The report covers producers of rigid and flexible profiles. AMI estimates that over 90% of production is in PVC, with the remainder in PE and small volumes of PP, PS, TPEs and engineering plastics. The largest share of the market is accounted for by the manufacture of window and building profiles, with around 65%. The AMI database includes the details of the European production sites of leading building profile producing groups including Profine, Veka, Rehau, Alphacan, Deceuninck and the Tessenderlo Group.

Germany is by far the most important market for the production of profiles, the researcher said. It accounts for almost half of the market in polymer demand terms, although only 20% of producers in the database are German. Italy has the next largest number of profile extruding companies. Until the global economic recession the fastest growth was registered in the markets of central and eastern Europe. A boom in demand for profiles in 2006 and 2007 led to a period of activity, with many western companies setting up production plants in the region, AMI said.

The database lists details for 157 operating sites in the newer EU states, of which approximately 25% are owned by Western companies.