Germany Packaging Machinery Market Research Report - PMMI

Because of the low quantities of packaging materials needed to reach the desired effects, plastics
considerably reduce the strain on the environment. (Of 14 million tons of packaging materials that are
needed every year in Germany, only 11% by weight are represented by plastic materials, which in turn
account for roughly 42% of all consumer-related products on the market.) An investigation carried out
by the GVM showed that the substitution of plastics packaging material by other materials would
increase the packaging weight fourfold and volume and cost twofold. The importance of plastics will
no doubt continue to increase in the future.
The trend toward PET packaging in the nonalcoholic beverages sector seems to be unstoppable. For the
cola market, the PET share already makes up 71.8% (January to August 2001). The share in the water
sector is still relatively low but is increasing rapidly: from 8.4% in January 1999 to 27% in July/August
2001. A share of up to 60% might be possible for the near future in this sector.
A more specific analysis of PET developments identifies the trend toward nonreturnable packaging.
Regarding small packages (0.5 liter) the consumer prefers the PET bottle to the glass bottle or the can
for convenience reasons. Regarding bigger packaging sizes (1.5 l and 2.0 l), the PET bottle is promoted
by the large discounters.
(The data is taken from the annual report 2000/2001 of the IK Industrieverband
Kunststoffverpackungen e.V.)
5.5.1 Facts and figures
Turnover of German production of plastic packaging materials 1999 / 2000
Amount Value in million €
Plastic packaging 1999 2000 1999 2000
Packaging foils (1,000 t) 1,252 1,339 2,993 3,460
Carrier bags, bags, sacks (1,000 t) 401 399 863 968
Cups, tins, cases and other. (1,000 t) 359 391 1,013 1,176
Bottles, carboys (million pieces) 6,358 7,639 640 745
Caps and closures (1,000 t) 200 213 780 871
Sleeves, spools and coils (1,000 t) 91 103 377 448
Drums, big container, barrels (million pieces) 454 624 604 692
Other (1,000 t) 55 59 116 130
Total* (1,000 t / million €) 2,706 2,947 7,386 8,490
(Source: IK (Industrieverband Kunststoffverpackungen) and RG Verpackung)
* The figures at the bottom of the “Amount” columns are not a sum of the figures in the columns. They represent an
estimate of the total volume of production of all categories of product in tons, estimated by the IK