This year’s “Interpack” packaging exhibition (www.interpack.de), held from 12 to 18 May in Düsseldorf / Germany, stood out in a number of ways. To start with, visitor (166,000) and exhibitor (2,700) numbers were practically back at the 2008 level – a sure sign that the crisis is over. This was especially obvious in the record number of exhibitors from the packaging production sector. With 99 companies they formed the second largest contingent, behind packaging machinery manufacturers (1,405), who traditionally lead the list.

Whether due to more professional market or enhanced self confidence, the exhibits also showed more gleam and glitter compared with 2008. In some of the halls, the naked eye would seem to register that around 90% of the packaging products on display had a major plastics component, although the official fair catalogue listed “only” two-thirds as plastic, followed by paper and cardboard with about 20% and metal with just over half that figure. Packaging is now one of the dominant customer markets for plastics converters, with a 40% share in Europe.

Since the late 1990s, plastics have also accounted for the lion’s share of the packaging market in terms of value. Figures for 2010 published by the federation of German packaging industry associations Gemeinschaftsausschuss Deutscher Verpackungshersteller (GADV) assessed the value of the domestic market at EUR 29.5 bn. Plastics accounted for EUR 12.2 bn (42%), followed by paper with EUR 9.8 bn (33%) and metal with EUR 5.6 bn (19%). In terms of volume, plastics packaging is no “heavyweight”, but nevertheless 4.1m t of plastic packaging were sold in Germany last year, accounting for 25% of the market by weight. Despite the more upbeat mood, packaging producers complain that profitability has suffered over the past 18 months, due to surging manufacturing costs.

The Plasteurope.com A-Plastixx index shows that prices for both flexible and rigid plastic packaging materials were 40% higher in April 2011 than in January 2010. April did show some signs of a flattening upward curve, however. At the end of May it looked as if the long upswing might have reached, or even crossed, its zenith. This does not mean prices are on their way down, however. In any case, it seems that the patience of plastics converters has peaked. “When polymer prices firm and supply tightens, the danger of substitution grows,” Ulf Kelterborn, general manager of Germany’s packaging producers association IK Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen (Bad Homburg; www.kunststoffverpackungen.de), remarked to PIE. At the same time, he said single-digit margins delay capital investment and threaten converters’ international competitiveness. IK sees another threat to German converters in the European Union’s plans for a possible ban on plastic carrier bags – see Plasteurope.com of 24.05.2011. This would be particularly harmful to countries such as Germany, where around 90% of the bags are recycled and littering is not an issue, Kelterborn said.