Belgian plastics industry grows in plastics resin sales

Belgian plastics industry grows in plastics resin sales

The Belgian plastics industry grew by more than 8% last year – due mainly to a huge increase in sales of plastics resin. Fedichem, which represents both producers and converters in Belgium, reported an 8.5% growth in turnover last year, to E11.4bn.

Plastics production swelled by 12.7% to reach E7bn, while sales of converted products were up 2.4% to E4.4bn. The organisation is “moderately optimistic” for this year.

At Fedichem’s general assembly yesterday, Henri Vliegen – president of the Fechiplast (converting) arm of the organisation – drew attention to the importance of product innovation as a way of maintaining competitiveness. Fedichem also pointed out that the plastics industry – with a positive trade balance of E6bn – is Belgium’s largest net exporter.