ENGLISH
Global demand for beverage closures slowed during 2009 as recession bit hard in the more developed economies, but the sector is still on track to post year-on-year growth of more than 2%. And plastics closures are growing at above the average for the sector, according to Dominic Cakebread, director of packaging services at UK-headquartered analysis group Canadean.
Cakebread told delegates at The European Plastics News Plastics Caps & Closure conference in Brussels in November that total global beverage closure demand is likely to amount to 1,011bn units for 2009, up by 2.1% on the 2008 level of 990bn units, but falling considerably short of the average 4.1% annual growth rates seen over the five years up to 2008.
"Overall growth in the beverage closure market is expected to fall slightly over the next five years to 3.3% per annum," he said. "The sharp fall in growth that was expected in 2009 has materialised but many markets are picking up speed again."
The Asia region, which Cakebread predicted is likely to account for 33% of total beverage closure demand for 2009, is leading this growth and was up by 7.7% year-on-year.
Canadean's data shows western Europe and North America both saw market demand fall, by 0.6% and 1.4% respectively. And the traditionally fast-growing eastern European region saw closure demand turn from an average of 6.4% growth over the five years to 2008 to a decline of 2.5% in 2009.
"That was not expected," said Cakebread. "There was a big hit in Russia this year."
Plastic screw cap closures remain the most dominant type of beverage closure, accounting for around 36% of the total market in 2009. Metal crown cork closures and ring pull can ends are the next two largest beverage closure category types, accounting for 25% of the total market each by units. H
owever, while crown consumption grew by just 0.7% in 2009 and ring pulls by 1.0%, plastic screw caps posted growth of 2.6% over 2008 levels. Canadean estimates 2009 plastic screw cap consumption to amount to 361bn units worldwide.
Sports closures also saw strong growth in 2009, up by 16.8% to exceed 21bn units. Cakebread attributes this growth, double the average over the previous five years, to intensified competition in the beverage market. This has lead to manufacturers substituting standard screw caps with sports caps to add value and consumer appeal.
Added value is also seen as a key factor in the liquid carton closure sector, which grew by 4.5% in 2009 after remaining fairly static over the previous five year period.
Looking ahead, Cakebread sees global closure demand picking up quickly, led by the emerging markets of Asia and South America. "Strong growth in Asia and Latin America in 2010 is expected to spread to the more developed markets of western Europe and North America from 2011," he said.
Most importantly for plastics manufacturers, plastic closures will account for a large part of this additional growth. "Overall plastics' share will increase to 44% and will account for 55% of additional closure requirements by 2013," he said.
Growing demand for beverage closures is not always a reliable indicator of overall beverage demand growth, however, and the shift to smaller container sizes in the carbonated soft drinks (CSD) and water markets has masked a weakening of demand in volume terms in these sectors.
"A year or two ago soft [drinks] would have been an extremely hot market but there has been a real slowdown," said Jason Holway, managing director of food and drink consultancy Futereau Consulting. Bottled water has been hit especially hard by the recession, he said, with the key markets of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the US - which together account for more than 53% of the sub-two-litre market in value terms - all flat or declining.
Water companies have responded by cutting cost to attract customers, said Holway. This is likely to continue in the near future, with bottlers demanding economy closures and potentially making larger pack sizes for the growth markets of the future, such as Latin America, he said.
While CSDs have faced slower demand during the recession, Holway sees good longer term prospects in eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. "CSDs have better long term margin potential than bottled water, especially for leading brands such as Coca-Cola," he said.
Closure demand trends will focus on cost through more standardised designs, he said, although he also sees considerable potential to introduce convenience closures in this market.
Stephen Wilkins, senior partner in Stephen Wilkins Associates and secretary of the UK-based Child-Safe Packaging Group, updated delegates on progress with a European standard for ease-of-opening, which is currently under discussion within CEN.
The new pr EN 15945 standard - which attempts to determine a testing methodology that will allow closure designs to be assessed for efficiency, effectiveness and user satisfaction - is likely to be voluntary and in any case is still two years away from adoption.
However, Wilkins predicts the standard will be adopted by manufacturers and brand owners wishing to demonstrate their commitment to corporate and social responsibility (CSR) with regard to elderly or impaired users.
Multi-layer injection moulding technology company Kortec detailed ongoing progress in transferring its multi-layer preform moulding technology to closure applications. The company believes it can offer a lower cost manufacturing alternative for users of two-piece lined or induction-sealed closures.
According to Russell Bennett, Kortec vice president sales & marketing, its technology allows an EVOH barrier layer to be incorporated into a PP cap in a single production step. This creates a one-piece closure with oxygen barrier performance as good as a butyl-lined PP two-piece alternative.
Bennett estimates a cost for 1,000 closures of $21.5 (€14.6) using its technology, compared with $37.4 (€25.3) for induction-sealable foil-lined two-piece designs and $26.0 (€17.6) for a TPE-lined design. This is based on a 64-cavity single face tool; further work will be required to take the Kortec system - previously only used on single face tools - into the stack mould area.
Stefan Müller, manager of application technology for caps and closures at Swiss machinery maker Netstal, surprised some delegates with the results of trials carried out in the company's technical centre producing HDPE caps on eight-cavity tooling running at a mould water temperature of 40°C, against the industry standard 12°C.
Müller said it had demonstrated that it was possible to run the moulding machine with mould cooling water set at 40°C on the same cycle times and basic machine settings used at 12°C with no visible effect on the quality of the caps produced.
Its estimations on a 96-cavity closure mould indicate that energy consumption could be reduced by up to 45kWh through reduced heat transfer from the hot runner and chiller energy consumption reductions.
While Müller acknowledged that it has not been able to carry out in-depth testing on the closures produced in its trials so far, he said the results were sufficiently promising to encourage further investigation. Unfortunately, running at higher mould temperatures means new cavities have to be constructed to accommodate the different mould shrinkage.
Foboha head of sales and marketing, Hansjörg Keusgen, updated delegates on single and double stack cube mould technology, saying that more than 300 systems of this type have now been installed.
The system, which replaces the static elements of a traditional stack mould with movable platens that rotate around the vertical axis, is particularly effective when assembly can be integrated into the process.
Keusgen detailed an application for production of two-piece disc-top closures on a double cube mould configuration. The double cube approach produces 81.6m closures a year from a single 450 tonne machine, while the traditional stack mould technology produces 83.6m closures but requires two 350 tonne machines and a post moulding assembly system.
According to Foboha, the double cube system provides a capital investment of around 10% less than the traditional system and results in a 22% part cost reduction. In addition, floor space requirement is halved and staffing requirements reduced by a third. Three systems of this type are now in use worldwide, said Keusgen.
From:http://www.europeanplasticsnews.com
From the Internet, If you believe an article violates your rights or the rights of others, please contact us.
