Plastic Caps and Closures

The new market study from Ceresana Research analyses production, consumption, and trade of plastic caps and closures in 31 European countries, including forecasts until 2017.
According to the study, more than 200 billion plastic closures were sold throughout Europe in the past year, 60 billion more than at the start of the decade. Ceresana expects continuous growth at an average rate of 2.3 % per year until 2017. Revenue from plastic closures in Europe will consequently increase from EUR 1.7 billion to more than EUR 2 billion per year. PP and PE are being used increasingly for closures. Significant growth can especially be seen in certain sub-segments of the beverage sector, such as beer, yoghurt, milk products, and sports drinks.

Production and consumption of plastic caps and closures is seeing the strongest growth in Russia, Poland, and Turkey. Manu­facturers in Eastern Europe are investing above all in mass production of standardised products, such as screw-caps for PET bottles. In contrast, producers in Western Europe are concentrating, for example, on complex closures systems with seals and built-in dosing devices for medications. Optical characteristics, such as transparency and gloss, especially play an important role in packaging for cosmetics.

In addition to a producer directory with 379 profiles of closure manufacturers, the report presents information on varieties of closure types: advantages, application possibilities, legal situations, disposal, and recycling.