With double-digit growth rates in the non-alcoholic drinks segment in Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, the three largest prospective EU member states, PET is on its way to becoming the major material for production of beverage bottles, increasingly substituting conventional materials such as glass and metal. Only the more traditional drinks such as beer and specialities such as syrup are still predominantly sold in cans or glass bottles. However, these markets are likely to go the way of mineral water and other non-alcoholic beverage bottles as a result of the compulsory packaging materials deposit introduced in Germany that has promoted the use of disposable PET bottles for beer.

Non-domestic producers dominate the preforms market in Poland. Canadean Ltd. (GB-Basingstoke, Hampshire; www.canadean.com), a market research institute with a special focus on the beverage market, reports that disposable PET bottles currently account for 43% of beverage containers in Poland in general and for 80% of the mineral water segment in particular. Beer bottles, however, remain largely unaffected. The PET preform market is dominated by manufacturers such as Amcor Alpia and GTX Hanex Plastic spzoo (PL-61-168 Poznan; www.hanex.com.pl), a local manufacturer with three production sites.

Large suppliers of non-alcoholic beverages and mineral water with their own blow moulding production are the main consumers of PET. The Polish Plastics Converters Association (PSPTS, PL-44-100 Glivice) lists these as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and such Polish beverage producers as Hellena SA (PL-62-800 Klaisz 1; www.hellena.com.pl) and Hoop SA (PL-01-102 Warszawa; www.hoop.com.pl). While the European statistics office Eurostat reports a slight dip in PET exports between 2001 and 2002, it says export sales rose by about 7% in 2002 to around 85,000 t. This brings Polish consumption almost into line with that of Germany (95,000 t), a country with about double the population.

Elana SA (PL-87-100 Torun; www.elana.torun.pl), specialising in PET granules, with annual capacity of 52,000 t, and polyester fibres (“Torlen”), is the country´s only significant local PET producer and claims to be catering for about 50% of the domestic demand for fibres. But the Polish market is heading for change. Petrochemical group Anwil SA (PL-87-805 Wloctawek; www.anwil.com.pl) has plans to cooperate with Korea´s SK Chemicals (www.skchemicals.com/english) on a plant for PET granules, with an annual capacity of 120,000 t, set for start-up in 2004 (see PIE 13, 2002).

Czech drinks suppliers opt for disposable PET bottlesIn the Czech Republic, PET imports have been increasing rapidly and are fast approaching levels similar to those of Poland. Last year, the Czech Republic imported 79,000 t of PET, compared with 48,500 t in 2001, an increase of 62% within only one year. Here, too, the above-average demand for PET stems from the rising popularity of disposable beverage bottles. Except for beer breweries, the entire drinks industry has made significant investments in the corresponding technology. The summer of 2003 saw double-digit growth in the non-alcoholic beverages segment, with disposable PET packaging accounting for almost 70% of the beer and non-alcoholic beverage container total. Non-carbonated mineral water, representing one-fifth of total mineral water consumption, is sold exclusively in PET bottles. Canadean reports that only the syrup segment, a significant industry in the Czech Republic, still remains unaffected by the material and continues to supply in returnable glass bottles.

Hungary´s beer market underlies its own traditionsIn Hungary, the share of PET bottles in the beverage bottle market is slightly smaller than in Poland or the Czech Republic. This is due mainly to the significant beer consumption (80% of total drink sales) in the country. Beer is traditionally sold in glass bottles. However, PET benefited last year from double-digit growth in mineral water sales. PET also is expected to be the sole beneficiary of the anticipated increase of disposable beverage bottles.

Despite the fact that there is no domestic polyester production in Hungary, the Association of the Hungarian Plastics Industry (HU-1406 Budapest; www.mmsz.col.hu) reports a continuous rise in the amount of processed material. The most recent figures, from 2001, show that PET represented about 45,000 t, some 6% of the 776,000 t of polymer processed in this country. Of the three prospective EU member states, Hungary consumes the lowest amount of PET. By comparison: in western Europe, PET consumption for bottles is estimated at about 1.9m t/y.