Growth in European tube industry bucks trend

The member companies of etma, the European tube manufacturers association, managed to increase their production again in 2012, up 1 % on what was already a successful previous year. Despite the difficult economic and business environment in Europe, the ten-billion-tube barrier was broken once again, with 10.33 billion tubes being produced.

The result means tube manufacturers in Europe managed to buck the general economic trend in the Euro zone. There, statistics showed a decline in gross national product of 0.4 % in 2012 and a fall in private consumption of over 1 %, so the growth in tube production went against this trend.

"One should not overestimate the 1 % increase in production though," says Dr Monika Kopra- Schäfer, etma's President. "The etma member companies can be justifiably proud of these figures. However, there is continued pressure on margins despite increases in productivity, in- plant cost-cutting programmes and optimisation in the supply chain." According to Dr Kopra- Schäfer it is difficult to predict what will happen in 2013. The overall economic situation in Europe is still very tense and the picture is clouded by continuing cost increases, particularly for energy and raw materials. Nevertheless, the satisfactory results of recent years provide good reasons for the industry to have a healthy confidence in its own strength. The tube's good image as a modern packaging material for convenience products in the eyes of both customers and consumers bodes well for the market development continuing to remain stable.

Comparison with the previous year shows that there have been hardly any changes with respect to end-use markets. The cosmetics market accounted for by far the largest share of the tubes produced, with a 43 % market share. It was followed by almost equal shares for the pharmaceutical sector, which increased slightly to 23 %, and the toothpaste market, which showed a slight decline to 20 %. The remaining tubes were used in the food industry and in the household and industrial products sector, which had shares of 9 % and 5 % respectively in total production.

"With the exception of high-priced cosmetics, the tube is used primarily in markets that are relatively insensitive to economic fluctuations. This is helping our member companies at times like now of course," explains etma's Secretary General Gregor Spengler.

The shares of the different tube types in total production remained almost unchanged in 2012: the aluminium tube had a share of just over 40 %, while the shares for plastic and laminate ranked equal, with 30 % each.