21 March 2007 – Rotational moulding is one of the smaller processes for thermoplastics. In 2006, it accounted for less than one percent of polymer consumption in Europe involving just over 300 companies according to AMI’s latest report on the industry.
Since AMI produced the first edition of its Guide to Rotational Moulders in Europe in 1991, the industry has enjoyed significant growth which has seen the number of companies involved increase and their annual consumption of polymer grow to nearly 250,000 tonnes.
The distribution of rotational moulders across Europe is notably different compared with most other plastics processing with the United Kingdom and Ireland having the largest number of moulders.
Much of the early development work on rotomoulding was done in the United Kingdom which partly explains the popularity of the process there. Another explanation relates to the demand for products such as large oil tanks. In countries such as Germany demand has historically been of a size to warrant their production by higher speed processes such as blow moulding, whereas in the United Kingdom the smaller numbers required encouraged production by rotational moulding.
As rotational moulding technology has improved there has been an increasing trend for its use across Europe particularly in markets requiring small volumes of large mouldings. Scandinavia is a good example of this, where there has been rapid development in the use of rotational moulding in recent years. The small local markets in the Nordic region for products such as boats, floats and buoys are ideally suited to production by rotational mouldings.
According to AMI rotational moulding is still largely the preserve of small businesses. Out of 315 companies listed in the guide just over 200 are privately owned.
