Blow moulding market is forecaste to have bright market conditions, as the market for containers with enhanced barrier properties continues to look very promising. Some pundits believe that even in the matured markets of North America and Europe, such packaging will grow at 6% for the next few years. Barrier blow moulded containers fulfill the demand of consumers by providing extended shelf life for products packed in them. The barrier properties that are very critical are: Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide and moisture. Unfortunately, sunlight and store lighting cause color fading, vitamin loss, and generally compromise the most carefully designed product and can damage branding image and credibility by low taste or poor visual appearance. For obvious economic reasons, the food, detergent and cosmetics industries constantly search for solutions to extend the shelf life of their products.

Of the several approaches taken so far to enhance barrier properties, the use of mutil-layer containers is the one that is most prevalent. However, the coating approach is also known to be catching up recently. In multi layer containers, the barrier properties are improved by use of special polymeric material For instance, EVOH, PVDC, and Polyamide special grades such as MDX 6 of Mitshubishi are very widely used. The introduction of nano clay also helps in improvement of barrier properties. In fact, nano clay improves Oxygen barrier by 4 times and Carbon Dioxide barrier by 2 times. Further improvement in blow moulded containers can be with the incorporation of Oxygen scavenger additive system that absorbs free Oxygen from the environment. Extrusion blow moulding is more widely used for multi layer blow moulded containers. Co-injection moulding process has also witnessed newer developments.

The most exciting packaging is that of beer in PET container. PET beer packaging is well accepted and is poised for tremendous growth as the packaging industry becomes more demanding. One obvious trend observed over the last year is transparency used in conjunction with special effects and deep colors, fuelled by the desire for greater product differentiation. Among the transparent polymers available in the market, PET stands out today as an excellent option due to its unique combination of properties such as: clarity, processability, barrier performance and cost.
While PET containers with enhanced barrier properties would gain a market share, PP injection stretch blow moulded containers will gain where barrier properties are essential. PP ISBM containers would also provide high temperature filling capability at lower cost compared to special copolyesters.

The North American market for plastic rigid food packaging is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 5.8% through 2008, from approx 4.5 million tons in 2003 to 6.2 million tons in 2008. PET, the most widely-used resin, is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 6.4%. Polypropylene (PP) is predicted to grow at 7.3%. Polycarbonate, the smallest segment of rigid food packaging resins, will see the highest growth, 7.4%.