Latest report for for thermoplastics shows less than 2% growth in 2005

A market slowdown saw demand for thermoplastics in Europe grow by less than 2% in 2005. This followed a 2.2% increase in 2004 and 2-3% in the previous two years, said AMI. The UK research company said in a new report that demand for all thermoplastics was 37.5 million tonnes last year, with slower growth rates for commodity and engineering plastics. AMI said: “The fluctuations in raw material pricing through 2004 and 2005 allied with weak consumer demand led to destocking and poor overall demand for most thermoplastic resins.” Traditional strong growth markets such as PP and PET had a disappointing year in 2005. PP demand was up less than 1% to just over 8.5 million tonnes. PET demand growth slowed to around 5%. Within commodity plastics, AMI noted weakness in PE, while PS and PVC markets continued on a downward trend already noted in 2004. Consumption of engineering plastics grew by only about 2% compared with 2004, when the market had advanced by over 4%. AMI said demand was particularly poor for ABS.