As novel coronavirus pneumonia and PET supply chain are tight, the price of colorless bottles and consumer bottles in January 2022 has reached the "record high", according to ICIS.
ICIS said that compared with December 2021, in January this year, the price of post consumer plastic bottles in northwest Europe increased by more than 200 euros per ton, and the price of bottle chips increased by 150 euros per ton. At present, the price of colorless bottle tablets is between 1600 euros and 1700 euros per ton. There may be some higher prices, but ICIS believes that these transactions cannot be proved to exist, so it has no reference significance for the time being.
The price rise in northwest Europe is consistent with that in southern, central and Eastern Europe. This is the highest price observed by ICIS since it began reporting the data in 2006.
Data show that since January 2021, the price of recycled PET chips in Europe has soared 103% to 1690 euros per ton. The price of waste bottles used to produce recycled PET chips has risen faster, more than tripling since January 2021. The price of recycled plastics in the United States also rose sharply. At present, the price of recycled PET has exceeded that of native pet.
At present, there are several factors affecting the supply, demand and price of RPET:
1. EU plastic products restriction directive (EU) 2019 / 904
The EU requires that PET plastic bottles contain at least 25% recycled plastics from 2025 and at least 30% by 2030. This means that the demand for post consumer bottle tablets in Europe is high, but the supply is more unstable to some extent.
2. Global supply chain crisis
Novel coronavirus pneumonia has caused a series of irresistible factors such as production disruption, extreme weather, shipping delays, and container shortage, which has aggravated the global supply chain crisis.
Renato zelcher, President of the European packaging Commission, said in an interview with European packaging last year: "more than 90% of enterprises in all EU member states have been negatively affected by this situation. Despite the improvement, the supply is still unstable, and some companies have to stop production due to lack of materials or avoiding price increases."
3. Application range of high quality recycled PET
In December 2021, major European beverage industry practitioners issued a statement calling on the European Commission to introduce a mandatory "priority rejection" policy to encourage the establishment of a closed cycle of bottle to bottle recycling systems. The organizer said that high-quality food grade recycled PET is being used in non food contact, such as toys and clothes. The organization believes that these products will reduce recycling and threaten the recycling goal of the beverage industry.
Existing EU legislation, such as the single use packaging directive (supd), has also been criticized for the lack of coordination among Member States. The European unified Trade Commission pointed out that some countries have failed to establish clear national rules on disposable plastics, and unbalanced promotion may lead to the division of the single market. Therefore, with the tightening of the regulations on packaging types, enterprises and governments are facing increasing pressure and review. It is believed that there is not enough support to effectively achieve the goal.
Since changes in the supply chain may be permanent, it is difficult to predict how long these factors will last. ICIS acknowledges that many companies are taking a cautious "wait-and-see" response, and this change may not become apparent until the second quarter of 2022.
Explosive demand growth, many giants spend money to expand production capacity
Affected by the supply restrictions of recycled bottle chips and related recycled material bottles, as well as the rise of energy and transportation costs, the prices of colorless post consumption bottles (PCR) and flakes in the global market, especially in Europe, have reached an unprecedented high. The regulations on increasing the recyclable content of products issued in many places in Europe and the United States have also promoted the "explosive demand growth" of major brands.
According to fact According to Mr's data, as consumers' and market preferences for sustainable and recyclable products continue to grow, it is expected that by the end of 2031, the global recycled PET (RPET) market will grow at a CAGR of 8%, with a total amount of US $4.2 billion.
Since February, many enterprises and brands have built or acquired recycling plants in Europe and the Americas to continue to expand recycling capacity and increase RPET production capacity.
1. ALPLA and Coca Cola bottlers build PET recycling plant
Plastic packaging company ALPLA and Coca Cola bottler Coca Cola FEMSA recently announced the start of the construction of a PET recycling plant in Mexico to expand their RPET capacity in North America. The two companies announced the launch of new facilities or machines that will add up to 110 million pounds of RPET to the market.
It is reported that the $60 million Planeta recycling plant of this recycling plant will have "the world's most advanced technology", which has the ability to process 50000 metric tons of post consumer PET bottles every year and produce 35000 tons of RPET, or about 77 million pounds. The construction and operation of the new plant will also provide 20000 direct and indirect jobs to promote development and employment in southeastern Mexico.
Coca Cola FEMSA is part of Coca Cola's "garbage free world" initiative, which aims to make all companies' packaging 100% recyclable by 2025, integrate 50% RPET resin into bottles and collect 100% packaging by 2030.
2. Plastipak expands the annual capacity of RPET by 136%
On January 26, plastipak, Europe's largest RPT manufacturer, significantly expanded its RPT capacity at its bascharge plant in Luxembourg, an increase of 136%. The construction and trial production of the new facility took a total of 12 months. Now it is officially announced to be put into operation. Its location is the same as its bottle embryo and bottle blowing facilities. It will be supplied to Germany and the Benelux alliance of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
At present, plastipak has factories in France, the United Kingdom and the United States (HDPE and PET), and recently announced the investment in a new production facility in Spain with a capacity of 20000 tons, which will be put into operation in the summer of 2022. The operation of the new facility in Luxembourg will increase the proportion of the plant's total capacity in plastipak in Europe from 27% to 45.3%. The company claimed last August that the total European capacity of its three plants was 130000 tons.
The manufacturing base was opened as early as 2008 to convert the recyclable RPET flakes of bottles after consumption into food grade recyclable RPET particles. These RPET particles produce new bottle embryos and packaging containers there.
Pedro Martins, Executive Managing Director of plastipak Europe, said: "this investment aims to improve our RPET production capacity. It shows plastipak's long-term commitment to bottle to bottle recycling and our leadership in the pet circular economy."
It is understood that in 2020, plastipak's Recycled PET accounted for 27% of its recycled resin in factories all over Europe, while the recycled PET in basecharge plant base accounted for 45.3%. This expansion of production capacity will further improve its production position.
3. Add 15000 metric tons of RPET / Pet capacity
Klockner pentaplast, the global leader in recyclable ingredient products and high barrier protective packaging, announced that it would expand the production capacity of post consumer recyclable ingredient (PCR) pet and invest heavily in North America to further develop its sustainable and innovative products in the consumer health, pharmaceutical and food packaging markets.
At present, more than 20% of Klockner pentaplast's products are made of PCR materials. This expansion will add an extrusion line and two thermoforming machines, which can provide a total of 15000 metric tons of new RPET / Pet capacity. Scott Tracey, the company's chief executive, said: "this expansion responds to the sustainable development needs of our users in food packaging, pharmaceuticals, consumer goods and label films."
It is understood that this extrusion line will support the production of important sustainable product lines, such as smartcycle recyclable label and consumer packaging film, kpnexttm recyclable pharmaceutical blister film. The thermoforming machine will produce pallets made of 100% single material RPET, which is easy to recycle and conducive to circular economy. The multi million dollar expansion target is fully operational in the first quarter of 2024.
4. Add 30% RPET to the hard box to meet the new tax policy of the UK
In order to help customers better cope with the new tax policy to be implemented in the UK on April 1, AVI global plastic, a PET packaging box manufacturer, launched Hard boxes containing 30% post consumer RPET, and these boxes are 100% recyclable. According to the company, RPET hard box can help fresh retailers adopt better packaging, and there is no compromise in transparency, strength and other properties.
The new UK tax deal will affect 20000 producers, users and importers. Last year, the company also launched 100% food grade RPET clam boxes and hard boxes. Its RPET is produced by the process certified by EFSA.
5. Loop's new PET recycling plant in Europe can produce 70000 tons of RPET per year
Loop industries, an American RPET and recycled polyester manufacturer, confirmed its first infinite loop in Europe on January 17 ™ Location of manufacturing facilities. The manufacturing facility will be jointly invested by loop and French environmental service provider Suez. They have obtained the exclusive right to purchase 130000 square meters of land in port-j% ue9r% uf4me sur Seine in Normandy, northern France, at a purchase price of about 1.3 million euros.
According to reports, infinite loop ™ The manufacturing model aims to produce 70000 tons of PET resin made of 100% recycled ingredients every year. The facility provides services to French global FMCG companies such as L'Oreal, o'shudan and Danone by providing locally produced recycled PET plastics and polyester fibers made entirely of waste plastics and of comparable quality with new materials, so as to help them accelerate the achievement of sustainable development goals.
Compared with the petrochemical facility, which can save more than 255000 tons of carbon dioxide per year when using new fuel. This carbon dioxide emission reduction is equivalent to the emission of more than 108 million litres of gasoline or more than 1 billion kilometers driven by an ordinary passenger car.
The facility complies with the relevant provisions of European plastic regulations, such as the EU plastic tax, 800 euros per ton of non recyclable plastic waste, and France's vision to transition to 100% recyclable plastics by 2025.
6. IVL's acquisition of US plants can handle 3 billion PET bottles per year
Indorama ventures (IVL) also completed the acquisition of the Texas plant of carbonlite holdings in the second half of 2021 as part of its commitment to improve PET recycling capacity.
It is reported that after the acquisition, the plant will be one of the largest producers of food grade recycled particles (RPET) in the United States, with a total annual capacity of about 92000 tons. The plant will recycle more than 3 billion PET plastic bottles every year and provide more than 130 jobs.
IVL is one of the world's largest pet producers of recycled beverage bottles. Through this acquisition, it will expand its recycling capacity in the United States to 10 billion beverage bottles a year. Indorama ventures, headquartered in Thailand, entered the US pet market in 2003 and is now moving towards its global goal of recycling 50 billion bottles (750000 tons) a year by 2025.
The hot concept of "double carbon" has blown a new outlet for the domestic recycling industry
For domestic chemical fiber enterprises, in addition to the economic driving force, the promotion of China's "double carbon" goal and the low-carbon trend of the global supply chain have made them clear the direction of transformation to high-value. At the same time, they are also looking forward to the penetration of carbon trading to bring them real benefits.
On September 15 last year, the national development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of ecological environment issued the action plan for plastic pollution control in the 14th five year plan to strengthen the recycling of waste plastics and clearly encourage the same level and high value-added utilization of waste plastics. More and more brands have put forward their "zero carbon" goal, and 80% of the carbon emissions of brands are indirect emissions. Therefore, we must promote the carbon emission reduction of front-end supply chain and back-end consumption, so as to promote more renewable enterprises to enter their own supply chain.
