PET bottles penetrate into newer areas of beer and hot filled sterilizable products

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The last decade has seen stupendous growth of PET bottles. PET bottles grew at about 12-15%. The major markets of carbonated drinks have now attained almost complete substitution of glass and aluminium tins. The Mineral water market has further potential of providing some growth in the next few years. Raw material suppliers have started developing newer applications to provide further impetus to growth.

Beer is one of the possible segments that may provide some growth opportunity. Recently, a large beer manufacturer Zhongfu invested US$10 million to set up a project for PET bottles. It is the first Chinese company that will consume almost 1000 tonne of PET for beer. The beer industry in the developed economy is however slow in adopting PET bottles.

A leading PET bottle producer in Germany called SchmalbachLebeca has developed a heat set process that will produce PET jars with high temperature resistance. These jars have been successfully used for pasteurization as well as retort capabilty of 121°C. These developments would help PET to grow well in the next few years. Infact Maack Business Services a leading consulting company predicts 12% growth until 2005. It is expected that PET bottle market would reach 12 million tonnes in 2005 from the present 7 million tonnes. Demand could outstrip supply in the next few years. It is therefore not unlikely that new capacities will come onstream. Even some fiber manufactuers could modify and convert their polymerization plant to make bottle chip grades.

Date:-14th January 2002