The "International Status Report on Plastics for 1993/94" published by the International Plastics Association Directors (IPAD) contains detailed figures on the development of the plastics production and conversion industries, as well as machinery in 24 countries.

Overall economic development is outlined and assessed, with a close-up focus on such important topics as inflation and unemployment, total production and consumption of plastics. The report also contains figures on sales of various polymers, the size of the plastics conversion sector, consumption of plastics according to end-use markets and types of materials, import-export statistics and sales of the machinery sector.

The producing and consuming countries spotlighted, including the US, Japan, Germany, Italy, the UK and France, as well as the growing markets of Hungary, China and Chile, represent a production volume of more than 82m t on the basis of 1994 figures. This is three quarters of estimated world consumption. The report is interesting in particular because it gives the reader access to information difficult to obtain elsewhere. In addition to an analysis of the difficulties faced by the plastics industry in eastern European countries such as Hungary and Romania in the main text, an appendix compiled on the basis of figures from the Japanese Plastics Industry Federation in Tokyo deals extensively with plastics in Southeast Asia, focusing on Korea, Taiwan and the People's Republic of China.

BOOK SERVICE: "International Status Report on Plastics for 1993/94" (English), 76 pages, A4-format, plastic-bound ring book, DM 275.00 plus postage/VAT: PIE-No. B 38685.