According to our new report, published in May 2019, polymer based single ply membranes are gaining market share from bitumen for waterproofing flat roofs. The impact of single ply's share gain on the bitumen roofing specialists has been significant and now many of the stronger ones also sell single ply.

The report’s author Sylvia Tabero says that “Construction activity has strengthened in Europe in the last few years driving significant growth in demand for single ply roofing membranes. The market is shifting towards lighter weight and faster construction techniques which benefits single ply at the expense of bitumen membranes. Another major influence is the growth in on-line shopping which is driving demand for new logistics buildings.”

Read the full press release here: Single ply roofing membranes gain market share

Sustainability is the key driver in the European plastic caps and closures industry; market development initiatives have so far been supported by the three pillars of sustainability, whereby environmental gains are commercially viable and socially accepted. The current regulatory context concerning the Single Use Plastics directive creates shifts the pillars out of balance, creating uncertainty in the value chain.

Our new report contextualises the new industry challenges and quantifies the impact of the changing regulations over demand.  

The European closures industry has been proactive for well over a decade to reduce the use of virgin material in both neck finish and closures. Lightweighting has been the most important driver of change. The last industry step-change within beverage closures was the shift towards 1-piece beverages caps and away from 2-piece caps, coinciding with the adoption of the PCO1881 bottle neck standard. Concomitant with raw material reduction are savings in energy, lower CO₂ emissions in logistics and consequently - cost savings. 

Read the full press release here: The impact of tethered caps regulation on the Eueopean caps and closures industry

Three exhibitions focused on plastics compounding, recycling and extrusion made their highly successful US debuts in Cleveland, Ohio this month. The Compounding World Expo, Plastics Recycling World Expo and Plastics Extrusion World Expo attracted a total of 261 exhibitors and 4,375 visitors to the Huntington Convention Center on 8-9 May 2019.

“We are absolutely delighted with the response to our exhibitions, which were very well supported by the North American extrusion, recycling and compounding industries” said Rita Andrews, head of exhibitions at AMI, the organiser of the event. “We’ve had extremely positive feedback about the Cleveland shows from exhibitors and visitors alike”.

Michael Krause, general manager with one of the Compounding World Expo exhibitors, BPC Toll Compounding and Blending, said:  “In the first three hours it was equivalent for a couple of days at the NPE show. It’s more focused on compounding and people that came by were interested in the topic.”

Steve DeSpain, president and general manager at Reifenhäuser Inc, an exhibitor in the Plastics Extrusion World Expo, added: “The expo has been well attended and presenting [in the conference theatre] led a lot of people to our stand, which is great!”

Read the full press release here:
Successful debut of Compounding World Expo, Plastics Recycling World Expo and Plastics Extrusion World Expo in North America