Threat of plastics price hike ‘damaging’ EU economies

Europe – Recent application of force majeure by some of the leading polymer suppliers in Europe ‘€˜could have very damaging effects’€™, claims the European Plastics Converters Association (EuPC).

‘We are receiving reports from our major national associations that compounders and processors are experiencing difficulty in obtaining adequate supplies of polymer to discharge contractual obligations towards their customers,’ says EuPC managing director Alexandre Dangis.

He says this is damaging EU member states as they try to ‘claw their way back’ from recession, and adds that the European plastics industry should be in the ‘vanguard of growth’ given its potential to deliver carbon savings and resource efficiencies.

Dangis fears a shortfall of raw material could lead to processing companies departing the EU to re-establish themselves in Asia ‘where on the face of it a more favourable polymer supply situation persists’.

He also warns of processors having to pass on potential increases in polymer prices down the customer chain. ‘For plastics packaging manufacturers, as an example, the raw material component accounts for as much as 60% of the selling price of a pack. If increases cannot be passed on; this places the very viability of the manufacturing companies at serious risk,’ Dangis says.

Brussels-based EuPC represents 51 European plastics converters’ associations, encompassing 50 000 companies which produce more than 45 million tonnes of plastic products per year.