Although generally optimistic about the future of the plastics packaging industries in Germany and France, representatives of the two countries’ leading plastics packaging associations – the IK Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen (Bad Homburg / Germany; www.kunststoffverpackungen.de) and Elipso (Paris / France; www.elipso.org) – have expressed their concern about raw material supply and price issues. During a recent meeting held in Paris / France, IK president Roland Roth and Elipso president Dominique-Paul Vallée discussed the main issue facing the sector today, including the pervasive and constant rise in plastics prices.

Although both groups say the situation has improved this year, with less cases of shortages being announced, they point out that “the frequent postponing of deliveries has led to higher costs at convertors and has been very difficult to manage.” The associations said the switch from quarterly to monthly contracts also posed new challenges, especially since nowadays raw materials can account for up to 80% of the costs incurred by plastics packaging producers. As a result, liquidity has become much more important than in the more recent past.

Both IK and Elipso concluded that the present reality requires new solutions to ensure raw material supply. One of the ideas touted was hedging – a concept Roth already had mentioned to Plasteurope.com in an exclusive interview held in February – see Plasteurope.com of 25.02.2011.