With total production of about 10.5 billion tubes the member companies of etma achieved growth of 10 per cent and a new record in 2010. Following the dip in demand in the difficult year 2009, the tube industry has thus successfully hit the ground running again.

Aluminium and laminate tubes reported satisfactory growth rates, up 9.4 per cent in each case, as did the plastic tubes, with growth of 11.6 per cent. There were no changes in the different tubes’ shares of total production. The aluminium tube’s share remained steady at 40 per cent, with the remaining 60 per cent being shared equally between plastic and laminate tubes.

By contrast, the user markets for tubes developed at different rates in 2010. The main user market, cosmetics, which suffered a significant decline in 2009, improved by a huge 11.4 per cent thanks to solid growth, including hair colourants. Shipments to the toothpaste sector, which was the second biggest end-use market in 2009 when it did not report any decline, grew by six per cent in 2010. Moreover, there was a pleasing 9.5 per cent rise in shipments to the pharmaceuticals industry, the third largest user market. Shipments to the food industry, which even in the crisis year 2009 achieved small levels of growth, were also able to continue their increase in 2010 with a plus of 9.2 per cent. And also the smallest user market in quantity terms, household and chemico-technical products, achieved splendid growth of 21.5 per cent in 2010 following a single-digit decline in demand in 2009.

“Overall we can be very satisfied with the market development in 2010,” says etma president Martin Hintz. “As a consumer-friendly form of packaging that offers excellent product protection, the tube is extremely popular. Moreover, numerous innovations with respect to decoration and closures have contributed to the attractiveness of the packaging on the shop shelf and make product application easier and more precise.”

2011 has also started admirably. Orders received in Europe in the first three months of the year are clearly on the rise so that production capacities are being well utilised. The development of raw material prices is however causing deep furrows on the tube industry’s brow. For example, the prices for aluminium, plastics and paper have almost doubled since January 2009. This cost explosion is exerting tremendous pressure on the tube industry’s margins.