Keep on Track, Despite Market Turmoils: The Future of Polymers

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In Germany too, the sector experienced further moderate growth after the record year 2014. Dirk Westerheide, President of the German Total Association of Plastics Processing Industry (GKV) however complains about major delivery bottlenecks and the extremely volatile price fluctuations for raw materials, especially for polyethylene and polypropylene.

The “New Normality”

Internationally, this new “normality”, characterized by economic growth and trends like the low oil price, fluctuations in supply and demand as well as weakening of most Asian currencies against the US dollar, is opening up new perspectives for regional economies.

The South Asian countries of the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) Group in particular are profiting from the favourable conditions: The production rates of the sector have increased continuously on an average in the last few years, especially in the ASEAN-6, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, which according to McKinsey, account for more than 95 % of the regional gross domestic product (GDP).

Plastics and plastics products belong regularly to the top export sectors of these countries, boasting an export turnover of $ 39.3 billion per annum.

China's Different!

Things are totally different in China: The People’s Republic had to revise its growth target downwards to 6.5–7 % due to the weak export demand. Now the initial companies are threatened with migration. The OECD too fears that the situation in China can impair the growth outlooks of the region. And yet: There is still no way around the “Goliath of global production” (McKinsey) for investors.

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