PET Market to be Worth $60 Billion by 2019

The global PET packaging market will have grown substantially by 2019, but some manufacturers believe opportunities for lightweighting may have been all but exhausted, according to a report by Smithers Pira.

The market will amount to 19.9 million tons and be worth $60 billion by 2019, up from just under 16 million tons and $48.1 billion in 2014, according to The Future of PET Packaging to 2019

Demand for PET packaging has been on the rise since 2010. PET bottles are becoming more widely used because they are easier to handle, do not break, can be resealed and are light for on-the-go consumption, the report says.. PET bottles are an increasingly popular type of packaging for carbonated soft drinks, bottled water, ready-to drink tea and functional drinks. PET packaging has also been making inroads into markets for juice, packaged food, household cleaning products and pharmaceuticals, replacing other packaging materials in these end-use sectors.

One growth area has been a trend towards lightweighting bottles in a bid to reduce the costs and environmental impacts of both the production and transportation of PET vessels. However, while some packaging producers and brand owners think that there may still be opportunities for further light-weighting of PET bottles over the five years to 2019, others are sure that the limit of lightweighting has been reached, the report says.

In January 2012, Plastics Today sided with the later group, arguing that anyone who had picked up a single-use water bottle recently, could affirm that the product has had so much plastic taken out of it in the name of efficiency that there is no more room for lightweighting. It is more likely that that manufacturers will be targeting wasteful or unnecessary secondary packaging at the carton or pallet level, the article said.