Over the past five years, per capita consumption of thermoplastics in Poland has almost doubled – from 33 kg to 61 kg in 2008, market research group Applied Market Information (Bristol / UK; www.amiplastics.com) says in its new report "Plastics Processing in Poland 2009". With this rapid growth, the booming EU country with a population of just under 38m has caught up with its smaller neighbours, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Its plastics consumption is now significantly higher than the per capita average of 45 kg for central and eastern Europe. However, to close ranks to the western European average of 88 kg Poland still has plenty of ground to cover.

Although AMI says annual growth rates have fallen slightly – from 9% in 2004 to 7% in 2008 – with a total consumption of around 2.33m t, Poland has now overtaken Scandinavia (around 2.2m t) to become the EU’s seventh largest plastics processor. It has received a major boost over the past decade as a large number of international companies have settled there, with the intent to leverage the country’s relatively low-cost position to supply western and central European markets, but also the Polish market and European markets farther east. The product focus is mainly on packaging, automotive OEM parts, white goods and consumer electronics.

According to AMI, there are some 1,700 plastics processing companies in Poland at present, of which 1,035 – or around 70% – are listed in the report with all pertinent data. About 60% of Polish plastics converters employ fewer than 50 people. This means that the majority are still family-owned, medium-sized enterprises, founded for the most part in the 1990s. Many are now seeing a marked increase in competition from the international companies operating locally.

In absolute terms, injection moulding, with a share of 52%, dominates Polish plastics processing activity. The main application for injection moulding – packaging – is now the domain of familiar western names such as Alpla, Superfos, Jokey and Schoeller Arca, although domestic players such as Plast-Box, Plast Service Pack and GTX Hanex have also carved out a sustainable position for themselves.

In the domestic appliance sector, the largest injection moulders are two integrated Polish manufacturers, Zelmer and Amica. Some well-known brand international manufacturers including Whirlpool, Electrolux, Merloni and Bosch-Siemens work in tandem with Western converters, but other OEMs rely on local Polish suppliers whose quality standards are now comparable to those of Western companies.

AMI's research shows that the majority of Polish converters are engaged in injection moulding of household goods. Nevertheless, the market leader is a Western company, Curvernow part of Keter Plastics. Because of the multinational interdependence in the automotive industry, injection moulding of automotive parts in Poland is largely dominated by such well-known companies as Ergom, Magneti Marelli (both Italian-headquartered) and Sweden’s Plastal.

In the flexible films segment, which as in other countries commands has the largest share of the market by volume consumption, both Polish and western European companies as well as a few joint ventures are active. According to the AMI report, Poland’s leading film manufacturers include the local offshoot of the Greek Maillis group and the German company CeDo, which through Delton is in the hands of the Quandt family’s industrial “empire.” Bischof + Klein, Nordenia and Natexis have also substantially stepped up their engagement in Poland.

The blow moulding market is dominated mainly by PET stretch applications, with Poland’s GTX Hanex and Alpla more or less sharing the top spot with soft drinks and mineral water bottlers that have their own in-house processing facilities. In extrusion blowing moulding of larger containers such as canisters and drums, the Polish company Invac Intervac rules the roost, although Zeller Plastik, Graham Packaging and Alpla are also present.

As regards rigid films, most of which are processed through thermoforming into packaging, AMI says Western players such as Huhtamaki, Greiner, RPC and Veriplast more or less have the market to themselves. This, again, presumably reflects the high level of international interdependence in the mass markets that although relatively large are nevertheless clearly defined specialised niches.

The AMI report notes that cable production – which account for around 84,000 t of polymer consumption in Poland – is another relatively important plastics processing market. The picture here is dominated by two companies created from mergers of previously state-owned producers. The market leader is Tele-Fonika Kable, which operates at five production sites in Poland

Construction applications continue to play a dominant role in the Polish plastics processing market. Some 30% of thermoplastic consumption flows into infrastructural applications as the country rushes to modernise. Among pipe producers, familiar names such as Wavin and Pipelife naturally feature prominently, but so, too, do local companies. Here, Barbara Kaczmarek is the biggest name. Window profile production is dominated by well-known systems suppliers such as Veka, Deceuninck, Erg-Profil and Aluplast, but Poland’s traditional integrated chlorine group, Zaklady Azotowe Tarnowia, in the southeastern part of the country still has a profile extrusion line.

The building boom has turned Poland into an “El Dorado” for insulating materials over the past few years. EPS, the polymer most frequently used for insulation, accounts for 212,000 t, or nearly 10% of the country's thermoplastic consumption altogether, which makes Poland Europe’s second largest consumer of EPS, behind Germany. This polymer significantly outpaced PS, where consumption for general purpose and high-impact grades in 2008 was just 130,000 t. The majority of the 381,000 t of PVC used by Polish processors also went to the construction industry and helped to position this venerable polymer as number three in terms of overall consumption.

While engineering thermoplastics, with total Polish consumption of just under 100,000 t, are still clearly underrepresented, the polyolefins, with more than 1.2m t, account for more than half. As could be expected, LDPE and LLDPE – used mostly for films – top the list, at 508,000 t. AMI’s figures show that some 29% of the 295,000 t of HDPE used in Poland also goes into production of films, with the remainder divided primarily among injection moulding, pipe extrusion and blow moulding. PP, which is mainly used in injection moulding, accounts for just under 470,000 t. A very significant volume of PP also goes into the production of rigid thermoformed films, where the UK group reports a number of large investments. The increasing use of PET is being very much driven by these applications and above all by bottle production. With a consumption of 237,000 t, PET is the second most important pillar of Polish plastics consumption.

As in AMI publications generally, the report on Polish plastics processing contains names and addresses of companies, telephone and fax numbers, website and e-mail addresses, one managerial contact, the name of the parent company and the processes operated (injection moulding, blow moulding or film, for example). For each process, the report also provides additional production details (such as polymers processed, markets supplied, etc.). The report is available as a bound copy or as a "Gold CD".

Book-Service:
AMI´s Directory „Plastics Processing in Poland 2009", 5th edition, 293 pages, soft cover: EUR 235.00 + VAT, PIE-No. 47337
Gold-CD: EUR 645.00 + VAT, PIE-No. 47340