markets feature | Latin America Colombia continues to be the most stable market in
the region, with growth in polymer demand increasingly driven by infrastructure projects announced by the Columbian government.
Growth in Peru Peru has also recently emerged as one of the more stable economies in South America. Its natural resource abundance, improved political stability and economic governance and industrial modernisation have been the main factors behind this success. Polymer demand in Peru grew by over 5% in 2014 with the main driver for growth being domestic demand (exports of plastic products from the country have signifi cantly declined in recent years). Packaging is the most important demand driver for
polymer in Peru, accounting for 60% of all resin used in plastics processing. Demand for PET for production of PET preforms is one of the fastest growth markets in Peru and the region - the country is a net exporter of preforms. Peru is also the location for the largest BOPP fi lm producer in South & Central America - OPP Film SA, which is owned by the Oben Group and has a capacity of around 120,000 tonnes/year. Oben Group is also now active in Chile, having
acquired the Chilean BOPP fi lm producer Sigdopack in 2013. Again packaging is the main driver for plastics processing in Chile, with a particularly large demand for PET bottles as the country has one of the largest per capita consumption rates of soda (soft drinks) in the world after the USA and Mexico. However, there was some slowdown in growth in 2014 due to rising energy costs and an increase in imports of fi nished product. The markets of Central America are also proving to be particularly robust, driven by growing investment in manufacturing aimed at servicing both the North and
South American markets. The largest of these markets can be found in Guatemala, which has one of the most important export-oriented plastics processing indus- tries in the region and one which has seen considerable growth in recent years. Plastic exports are mainly generated by packaging products, including closures, crates/boxes, fl exible packaging, PET preforms and sacks targeted at other markets in Central America as well as the US and Mexico.
Commodity markets As might be expected polymer demand across the South and Central American region is characterised by a high volume of commodity resin, which accounted for over 97% of all plastics processed in 2014. The largest volume is for polypropylene resins, which account for more than 22% of the market. The polymer is widely used for raffi a production for bags and sacks, produc- tion of BOPP and cast fi lm for food packaging, and for injection moulding of a wide variety of consumer goods and packaging. HDPE demand stood at just under 2m tonnes for 2014, with the polymer widely used in the manufacture of bottles, drums and jerricans, gas pipe and a variety of injection moulded products, but particularly packaging (such as closures and crates). PET resin has been the fastest growing market due
primarily to the high per capita demand for soda drinks and the replacement of glass, tin and cartons. Recent investments in the fi rst BOPET fi lm lines in the region has also helped keep PET demand on a positive trajectory, whereas all other resins saw falling demand overall in 2014. The decline in PVC usage is mainly the result of the weak state of the building market in Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela. However, in most other countries in South and Central America PVC usage has been growing strongly thanks to investment in pipe and profi les for infrastructure, agricultural and mining projects.
Of the commodity resins, polystyrene is the smallest market with GP-HIPS accounting for 5% of all plastic processed in 2014 and EPS less than 2%. GP-HI PS is not expected to see its market grow over the study period due to competitive pressures from other polymer materials in packaging markets, particularly PP and PET.
Polymer demand in South & Central America 2013-2019 Source: AMI Consulting 2015
76 COMPOUNDING WORLD | December 2015
Engineering thermoplastics accounted for just over 320,000 tonnes of demand, with the bulk of this demand occurring in Brazil and Argentina. However, the market for these materials shrunk by over 16% between 2013 and 2015, largely because of the decline in car manu- facturing in these countries.
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