NEWS IN BRIEF...
By increasing capacity at its plants in Heanor, UK, Steinfeld, Germany, and Zdzieszowice, Poland, Berry Global will increase the amount of recycled plastic produced across its European sites by around 6,600 tonnes/year – and raise the quality of the recyclate used across its flexible film solutions, it said. Many products made at Berry’s European film facilities now contain more than 30% recycled content, it says.
www.berryglobal.com
Eastman says it has achieved on-spec initial production and is generat- ing revenue from its new molecular recycling facility in Kingsport, US. The company says it expects to ramp up production over the coming months.
www.eastman.com
Borealis has completed the acquisition of Bulgar- ian chemical recycler Integra Plastics, adding more than 20,000 tonnes/ year of capacity.
www.borealisgroup.com
China bioplastic market set to treble by 2026
Bioplastics production capacity in China 2019-2026
Source: Nova Institute 2024
The Chinese market for bioplastics is expected to treble by 2026. A report from Nova Institute in Germany predicts a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 49%. It expects the bioplastics industry in China to expand from around 766,000 tonnes in 2023 to more than 2.5 million tonnes in 2026. “China’s bio-based plastics industry is experi- encing rapid growth which is largely driven by policy incentives,” said the report. One key policy, intro-
duced in 2021, was the 14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Bioeconomy. The Chinese government has since introduced other policies and regulations to promote bio-based and biodegradable materials, including the Three-Year Action Plan to Accelerate the Innovative Development of Non-Food Bio-based Materials, in 2023. It aims to make non-food, bio-based products competitive with fossil-based products by 2050.
While policies like these
– and investment from private equity firms – have contributed to industry growth, they have also led to structural overcapacity, says Nova. In 2023, annual production capacity of PLA and PBAT was 1.5 million tonnes (while actual production was only 260,000 tonnes), and is expected to reach 3.6 million tonnes by 2025. However, the market size is only expected to reach 2.5 million tonnes, suggesting overcapacity in the biode- gradable plastics market. �
www.nova-institut.de
Lower FMCG demand affects Uflex results
Indian flexible packaging major Uflex saw both sales and profits decline for its latest fiscal year. For the year ending in March 2024,
it reported sales of around INR135 billion (US$1.6bn), a fall of nearly 9% compared to the previous year. This was largely due to lower demand in the FMCG sector, said the company. Despite this, signs of recovery emerged in the final quarter – with a 10% increase in sales volume translat-
6 FILM & SHEET EXTRUSION | June 2024
ing into 3% revenue growth. “In Q4, we saw an increase in sales volume despite a challenging environ- ment,” said Rajesh Bhatia, group CFO at UFlex.
Sales volume for the full year was
just short of 600,000 tonnes – an increase of about 2%. However, profitability (EBITDA) fell
by nearly 20%, reaching around INR16bn (around US$156m). Ashok Chaturvedi, chairman and
managing director of UFlex, said: “This has been a year of consolidation. We are confident that our vertical integra- tion strategy and new global capacities will help us deliver long-term value.” One element of this was to achieve
“raw material self-sufficiency” by commissioning a 168,000 tonnes/year PET chip plant at Panipat, India – which will mainly be used to make BOPET film. �
www.uflexltd.com
www.filmandsheet.com
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