Strengthening consumer demand and moves into applications traditionally occupied by other materials have helped boost polypropylene growth in Europe by nearly 10% in the past five years. A new report, "The European market for polypropylene" by research group AMI Consulting (Bristol / UK; www.amiplastics.com), found that demand growth had outstripped the polymer market in Europe. Despite being hit by the economic downturn in 2012, subsequent growth has been healthy and, AMI reports, its prospects for the next five years remain buoyant.

The packaging industry remains the largest customer for PP, being used in a wide range of rigid and flexible packaging applications. Increasing retail activity has helped PP’s growth, as have moves into applications where it competes with other polymers, as well as paper, metal and glass alternatives. PP has also increased its share in plastics used in the automotive sector, according to AMI. In addition to its traditional presence in many large components, such as bumpers and heating and ventilation systems, PP is securing a dominant position in instrument and door panels, and continuing to penetrate structural applications where long fibre and other PP compounds offer lighter-weight opportunities, compared to the incumbent materials.

Such is PP's versatility that it is a strong contender in a wide range of other markets, with construction, housewares, appliances and furniture being the most significant in terms of volume and contribution to growth in recent years. In some sectors, PP is challenged by the increasing use of recyclate, but AMI argues that it generally lags behind other polymers, such as PET and HDPE, in terms of the development of systems for its recovery and re-use. Therefore, recyclate is not expected to have a significant impact on the growth prospects for PP.

As European demand for PP has grown, so too has the level of imports, which have increased sharply, notably from the Middle East where significant new capacity has been developed. Yet despite strong global competition, Europe remains the cradle of technical developments in PP.

AMI’s report highlights that European PP producers tend to focus on shifting their business towards higher value applications and providing solutions to support the PP processors seeking to do the same. Hence European exports of PP have only marginally declined and European producers have enjoyed increasingly high levels of utilisation.