PET: More than Bottles for Mineral Water and Fruit Trays. Opening Horizons

Polyethylene Terephthalate has matured and evolved into a pure commodity product. Widely used for packaging of mineral waters, all kinds of soft drinks, and thermo-formed trays, its market growth has gone from double-digit figures not so many years ago into an almost flat volume growth. This is especially true in the Western markets, where a large penetration of recycled PET has also eroded the market quota for virgin PET.

However, it exists also in the World a very wide array of alternative uses for modified polyethylene terephthalate polymers, with some interesting niche markets providing good opportunities for companies with small capacity assets and with a strong will to invest in market and product development.

From luxury packaging, building parts, car license plates, to blood sampling tubes, a full universe of products and applications exists for PET, offering a rebirth opportunity to some of the industry players. And this is not only a matter of providing profitability to the industry, but also to promote some applications with the most ecological and cost-effective polymer currently available.