E T Polymers

Biaxially Oriented Films
An Overview of the World Market

Abhay Sheth
C.E.O.
Abhay Sheth Technologies,
Mumbai.

This article mostly covers performance and marketing of polymer based biaxially oriented, thin, shrinkable packaging films.

The world market for biaxially oriented films today represents a volume of 5 million tonnes per year. BOPP (bi-oriented polypropylene) and BOPET (bi-oriented polyester) are the two main segments, accounting for 58 per cent and 31 per cent of this market respectively. BOPS is mostly produced in the USA and Japan. BOPA is still a Japanese specialty though it is also being produced in USA, Europe and Asia. 90 per cent of biax films is produced with tenter frame techniques. Approximately 750 tenter lines have been installed worldwide during the last 30 years (of which there are 430 BOPP lines, 250 BOPET lines and 50 BOPS lines). 70 per cent of the film undergoes a conversion operation before end-use applications (coating, metallizing, printing, lamination). Though the biax film market is getting more and more global, it is still divided into regional markets. North America and Western Europe are mature markets dominated by a few well-established key players: DuPont, ExxonMobil, ICI, 3M and Eastman Kodak. Almost one third of their production is consumed by captive end-uses. Latin America and Asia are emerging markets with numerous but fast growing local leaders. Nearly all their production is dedicated to the open market. The main applications for BOPP are food packaging, tobacco overwrapping and capacitors. Growth of BOPP market was initially stimulated by replacement of cellophane, PVC and PS. Though it has a higher cost and has more production difficulties, BOPET is preferred to BOPP for several applications:

packaging applications because of its higher moisture and flavour barrier properties
in magnetic media (audio/video tapes)
photographic media (professional still films, instant films etc.) because of its higher tensile strength.

Thick gauges BOPS ranging from 100� to 700� are used for thermoforming, but development in applications such as lids and shrink labels give new growth opportunity in thin gauges (25�-60�). BOPA is traditionally used for its barrier properties, in particular, for MAP packaging. Generally, the growth prospects for producers of biax film are very promising. As technology improves, new applications emerge and markets continue to grow.

BOPP Market

BOPP ranks first among the biax films with over 3 million tonnes capacity in the year 2000. First applied to food packaging as a substitute of cellophane, it is now found in all kinds of applications for flexible packaging and nonpackaging uses. BOPP is being produced by an estimated 140 producers on 330 operating BOPP lines worldwide. BOPP is mostly used in foodpackaging applications (68 per cent), whereas only one fifth of the world production is used for non-packaging end-uses.

BOPP is used in laminate structures in a variety of food packaging: bakery & snacks, cookies, candies, ice-creams, noodles etc. Adhesive tapes, print lamination, flowers and gift-wrapping are among the other major end-uses of BOPP. It is noteworthy that a remarkable quantity of BOPP produced by double bubble method enters the adhesive tape business. Reasons are the superior MD tensile properties of double bubble films, permitting performance-based product differentiation together with an effective vertical integration production strategy, due to lower cost of film production systems. Specialty films, such as cigarette pack overwrapping is another business favouring double bubble films, because of the residual shrinkage required by tobacco packers to tightly wrap their cigarette boxes. Labels and enhanced barrier BOPP films are other fast growing segments of BOPP market. Also, they provide secure sales revenue in today�s depressed market. Future areas of growth will arise from recent developments in co-extruded structure and continuous packaging needs in developing countries.

BOPET Market

Despite the current difficult market situation, BOPET� s unique combination of technical performance and price guarantees its future as one of the key high performance biax films. The world market for bi-oriented polyester (BOPET) film has undergone a major transformation in recent years. From an initial market characterized by...

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