By Plasteurope.com staff

For German’s plastic packaging industry, the availability of raw materials has improved significantly. This is the result of the latest economic survey by domestic industry association Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen (IK, Bad Homburg; www.kunststoffverpackungen.de) among its member companies. According to the survey, 76% of respondents evaluate the supply of materials at present as “good” or “very good”.

The positive appraisal of the raw material availability can be explained by the continuing weak demand from the customer industries, according to the plastics packaging association. In view of ongoing production cutbacks at European crackers, many plastics processors from the packaging segment have, according to IK information, also reorganised their purchasing strategy: nearly two-thirds of the companies are now opting for a diversified supplier base, and are buying their material abroad. The focus for the buyers is above all on the Gulf states (58% of respondents obtain at least some of their raw materials from the region) and Asia (44%).

Related: German packaging and film makers expect higher sales on rising raw material costs

The reason for the outsourcing from abroad is that because production volumes in Europe are constantly falling, the plastics packaging companies fear that bottlenecks will arise with the materials polypropylene (46.5% of the converters see the threat of a shortage here), HDPE (33%), LDPE (30%), and polyethylene (18.6%). At the same time, it does not seem to be such an acute problem for the companies because, in the IK survey, 83% said they did not expect anything to change as regards raw material availability in Q3 2024.

— Translated by Jon Relton