Italy Looses a Million tons

between 2008 and 2009, the sale of virgin plastic in Italy dropped by almost one million tons, down to a level of 6 million tons in 2009. A two step drop: -8% in 2008 and -9% last year.

This is the conclusion of the latest Plastic Trend Synthesis study published by Plastic Consult, the Italian consulting company, which analyzes the trends of all major thermoplastic polymers.

In terms of consumption, the only polymer going against the trend is PET (+2.9%), thanks to the good performance of bottling liquid beverages.

Negative signs are all that’s left for the other thermoplastics: -10,5% for low density and linear low density polyethylene, due to negative trends in palletizing and -8,1% for high density polyethylene, dragged downward by industrial applications (pipes and drums/tanks) and the building market.

Polystyrene’s performance was slightly better than average, with consumption of expanded and compact polymer shown a negative trend of -6.2%. The demand for PVC (-15%) and tehcnopolymers (which dropped between -15% and -20%) was strongly effected by the depression of their major markets of use: Automotive, home appliances, and mechanics.

The national production of polymers also dropped off, in part due to the shutdown of Italian PVC plants. The foreign sales balance degraded further, with imports covering almost 75% of the demand for thermoplastics in Italy during 2009.