Masterbatch sector thrives through downturn

 Leading international manufacturers of masterbatch producers acknowledged undergoing a difficult period owing to the global financial crisis of 2008 compounded by slower growth in masterbatch demand due to the maturity of the business.

 This has been the consensus of those covered by the Applied Market Information (AMI) Ltd report which details the size, strategy and performance of Europe’s leading masterbatch producers updating earlier research carried out in 2006. The increasing market maturity is evidenced by the limited number of changes to the names of the companies in this publication since its last edition. However, this belies the significant amount of turmoil in the market and major changes in the status of many of the companies listed, with some players cutting back activity and closing plants in Europe whilst others have sought wider or new markets to sustain or grow the size of their business.

 A number of companies have refined and changed their market position in the last three years. Some of the players that feature in the Top 10, such as Schulman and Ampacet have widened their product ranges to include much more specific colour matched product, whilst other companies such as Tosaf and Plastika Kritis have grown their business through expanding their sales geographically.

 It is also clear that the downturn in Europe of 2008 and 2009 resulted in many companies refocusing on core skills and cutting back peripheral activities. In black masterbatch, for example Cabot significantly altered its involvement in Europe closing a number of plants whilst building up capacity in other regions of the world. It announced its decision to strengthen its Asian operations by moving the production of its Hong Kong masterbatch plant to its new facility in Tianjin, China. Thus, all of the company’s masterbatch product will be produced in China starting the first quarter of this year.

 The AMI study also stated that opportunity has emerged for the independent sector which has seen some producers achieve significant growth, even through the recession. The main winners from this development have been Hubron and Polyplast Müller. Given the challenging economic forecasts for the euro zone it is likely that this changing and refocusing of effort will continue for a number of suppliers into the medium term future.

 Another report from AMI also points to Asia as the fastCheap Nike Air Max 2017 For Online Sale