Plastic heavy duty sacks in Europe

Published June 2016

The market for heavy duty sacks in Europe continues to undergo significant changes and developments, which offer opportunities to suppliers of these products. The market continues to grow, with demand driven by both organic growth and opportunities to replace more traditional paper sacks. The resilience of the market is further illustrated by the fact that downgauging is resulting in products that use much less resin per sack than was the historical norm. The market has also displayed, and continues to display, a level of structural change with certain sack types (especially the form fill & seal types) experiencing growth, while the supply side of the industry is also changing as more focused packaging suppliers increase their market coverage. All these trends will increase in emphasis in the future resulting in changing industry structure and a more consolidated industry populated by larger, stronger suppliers.  Given the strong competition between sack types and the changing industry structure, all stages of the supply chain require a high level of commitment to the business in order to develop successful strategies. Thus these strategies should be reviewed in the light of the best information available.

Among the specific questions answered by the study are:

• What is the size and structure of the European market for plastic heavy duty sacks?
• How can this market be subdivided?
• Who are the leading players and what is their share of the plastic sack market?
• What is the demand for each type of sack within each country?
• What are the growth prospects and the growth drivers?
• What impact, if any, can be expected from machinery developments?
• What are the current resins used and how will that change in the future?
• What impact, if any, can be expected from resin developments?

So the key issues addressed in this study include:

• Main challenges and drivers in the plastic heavy duty sack market
• Market overview of the respective types of sacks and end-use applications
• Demand for heavy duty sacks in individual countries by sack type and end use application and quantified both by number of units and tonnes
• The average sack thickness for each application
• Paper sack consumption in each country and application
• Supply structure and production shares of the ten largest producers in each country
• Polymer consumption for each country for years 2010, 2015, 2016 and 2020 and by individual polymer types.