The economic and Eurozone crises have left their mark on Europe’s plastic pipe sector, resulting in restructuring, plant closures, the transfer of production abroad as well as a number of bankruptcies and acquisitions following liquidations. The latest edition of “AMI’s directory of plastic pipe extruders in Europe”, published by Applied Market Information (AMI, Bristol / UK; www.amiplastics.com), shows that the number of pipe extrusion sites in Europe has fallen to about 480. In 2008, that figure still reached 559, which already was down on the 625 operating sites identified in AMI’s 2001 report.

Most of the reductions occurred in Spain, Italy, France and the UK, AMI said, adding that these four countries accounted for 60-70% of European site closures. The economic crisis only accelerated the trend towards a merger of production sites, AMI added, pointing out that the slowdown in construction from 2001-2005 – which it says was largely the result of the weak German building market – actually marked the onset of the consolidation phase. Despite the problems experienced by Germany over the course of the last decade, the country still remains Europe’s largest pipes producer, accounting for 20% of total production in 2014. In fact, AMI points out that Germany’s share of production has risen over the past few years, adding that it is the only country where output has recovered to 2007 levels. Taking all European countries into account, production still remains 20% below the pre-crisis year.

The UK-based market researcher has also issued another report on Europe’s plastic pipe sector. “AMI’s Corporate performance and ownership among Europe’s leading plastic pipe extruders” profiles the region’s 50 largest pipe producers. The study found that European pipe production is quite consolidated, with the leading 10 companies accounting for 40% of production volume. In financial terms, the 50 largest pipes producers’ performance comes to about EUR 7.5 bn.

Both in terms of volume and turnover, Wavin (Zwolle / The Netherlands; www.wavin.com) dominates the European market. The Dutch group was acquired by Mexichem (Tlalnepantla / Mexiko; www.mexichem.com.mx) in 2012 – see Plasteurope.com of 09.02.2012 – and now belongs to the world’s largest pipes producer. Since the takeover, AMI’s study found, eight facilities, including in Belgium and Norway, have been shuttered, with manufacturing having moved to more competitive locations, including in Latin America.

Europe’s second largest pipes producer is Pipelife (Wiener Neudorf / Austria; www.pipelife.com). It, too, underwent an ownership change in 2012 when Wienerberger (Vienna / Austria; www.wienerberger.com) purchased the 50% stake owned by former partner Solvay (Brussels / Belgium; www.solvay.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 20.02.2012. The crisis notwithstanding, Pipelife has made a number of acquisitions in recent years, including its 2011 purchase of Alphacan’s (Chatou / France; www.alphacan.com) plant in Gaillon, northern France – see Plasteurope.com of 08.04.2011.

In the future, these two leading producers could, however, face tough competition from Russia’s Polyplastic Group (Moscow; www.polyplastic.ru), AMI said. Europe’s third largest producer in volume terms has been rapidly expanding since its founding in 1991 and in 2013 first entered the European market by acquiring UK-based Radius Systems (Alfreton, Derbyshire; www.radius-systems.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 06.03.2013. It followed up last year with the purchase of Latvia’s SIA Evopipes (Jelgava; www.evopipes.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 30.04.2014.