Industry Analysis & Industry Trends
Over the past five years, consumers of plastic products and producers of plastic have increased their consumption. This trend has caused plastic products to increasingly substitute materials such as wood, paper, metals and glass in many applications. Plastic is often more price-competitive, while also offering better performance characteristics. As a recyclable material, plastic also has environmental benefits, such as waste reduction and energy savings. This trend has boded well for global plastic product manufacturers, with revenue expected to grow 3.5% in 2012 to $779.8 billion, marking an annualized growth rate of 0.5% over the past five years.
The five-year period to 2017 is also expected to be prosperous for the industry, due to continued improvements in demand for plastic... read more
Industry Key Buyers
According to IBISWorld analysis, the industry has a fragmented structure, exhibiting a low level of market share concentration. The three largest players are estimated to account for a mere 2.0% of total revenue in 2012. The industry's low level of concentration is primarily due to the fact that there are close to 128,000 enterprises operating within the industry, each manufacturing a certain type of product that caters for a specific and limited customer base. As such, an enterprise's ability to generate revenue and to dominate the market is limited by the range of products manufactured and its global reach. What makes it more difficult to take ownership of the market is that the range of products that are produced from plastics is extremely broad... read more