About The British Plastics Industry
The UK Plastics industry is a global leader operating at the cutting edge of technology and constitutes an important UK economic strength. It has an annual sales turnover of over £32.8 billion and employs approximately 160,000.
The industry is a dominant player worldwide in the three core sectors that make up the plastics industry: material and additive manufacturers, material processors and machinery manufacturers/suppliers.
The industry has a long and complex supply chain stretching from the producers of plastics raw materials and additives to the end-user (customer industries) and plastic recyclers.
Different product groups, for example automotive components and retail packaging, have markedly different supply chains.
4 Exports
5 Plastics Raw Material Production in the UK
6 Plastics Processing in the UK
7 Strengths of the UK Plastics Industry
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The UK Plastics Industry At A Glance |
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| 3.5 million tonnes Plastic materials processed |
1.8 million tonnes Plastic materials produced |
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| 160,000 People directly employed |
400k Total employment including indirect jobs (approx) |
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£32.8
billion Plastics industry turnover
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5,700 Companies in the plastics industry |
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| +10% Increase in Export Sales (2021-2022) |
Top 10 Plastics are one of the UK's Top 10 Exports |
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| HS Code | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | |
| Manufacture of plastics in primary forms | 20.16 | £5.35bn | £6.19bn | £5.64bn | £5.4bn | £5.29bn | £4.65bn | £4.92bn | £5.78bn | £6.1bn | £5.27bn | £4.35bn | £5.57bn |
| Manufacture of plastic products | 22.2 | £16.99bn | £17.43bn | £18.23bn | £19.92bn | £20.39bn | £19.92bn | £20.04bn | £21.05bn | £21.01bn | £20.96nb | £20.19bn | £22.01bn |
| Manufacture of machinery for plastic and rubber production | 28.96 | £627m | £673m | £344m | £270m | £125m | £93m | £232m | £329m | £226m | £207m | £181m | £194m |
| TOTAL | £22.96bn | £24.29bn | £24.21bn | £25.04bn | £25.8bn | £24.56bn | £25.19bn | £27.13bn | £27.34bn | £26.44bn | £24.72bn | £27.78bn |
With over 160,000 people employed in the UK plastics industry, the industry is one of the largest sector employer in UK manufacturing.
Not only is plastics a huge direct employer in the UK but due to the unique role it plays in the UK manufacturing supply chain it is also a large indirect employer. For every job created in the plastics industry a total of 2.74 are created in the wider economy (source).
3. Productivity in the Plastics Industry
Since 2009 the plastics sector in the UK, like most industrial sectors, has seen a level of consolidation. As can be seen below the overall number of plastic processors has decreased yet turnover has increased.
| 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | |
| Turnover (£000s) | 16,888 | 16,198 | 18,394 | 18,091 | 18,202 | 19,458 | 20,058 | 20,273 | 20.901 | 20,991 | 20,708 |
| Number of Companies | 5,614 | 5,383 | 5,216 | 5,119 | 5,129 | 5,153 | 5,224 | 5,240 | 5,308 | 5,127 | 5,024 |
| Number of Employees | 141,000 | N/A | 134,000 | 133,000 | 140,000 | 152,000 | 146,000 | 138,000 | 161,000 | 145,000 | 141,000 |
Source: Annual Business Survey (2019) using SIC 22.1 'Manufacturer of Plastic Products'
The UK plastics industry is highly innovative and subseqeuntly highly competitive. When looking at 'value added' in the UK plastics industry (calculated by assessing the volume of material consumed per annum, calculating the cost paid for the material and comparing the figure with the overall turnover of the plastics industry) it can be seen that the UK plastics industry performs very well when compared to other leading countries in Europe.
Source: Source Raw material prices source: BPF Polymer Price Profile, Currency Exchange Rate Source: UK Forex, Polymer Consumption Data (by material) and industry turnover source: Reed Business Infomation (ICIS), International Monetary Fund (IMF), VDMA Fachverband Kunststoff- und Gummimaschinen, Federation de la Plasturgie, SYMACAP, SNCP, CIPAD report, IRSG (International Rubber Study Group), GTA, EUROMAP, BPF, CIPAD report, IRSG (International Rubber Study Group), TRADEMAP, Annual Business Survey
4 Exports
In 2022, the UK exported £10.5bn of plastic and plastics products making it one of the UK's Top 10 exports.
The table below shows the UK's Top 15 export markets for plastic and plastic products...
| Rank | Country | Value (£) |
| 1 | Germany |
£1,255,388,322 |
| 2 | Netherlands |
£1,068,884,244 |
| 3 | USA |
£1,022,106,081 |
| 4 | Ireland |
£830,402,430 |
| 5 | Belgium |
£790,330,127 |
| 6 | France |
£735,825,873 |
| 7 | China |
£362,150,739 |
| 8 | Italy |
£350,995,894 |
| 9 | Spain |
£283,847,008 |
| 10 | Poland |
£281,260,521 |
5 Plastics Raw Material Production in the UK
It is estimated that the UK produces approximately 1.6 million tonnes of plastics raw materials annually. Supporting the big names in UK polymer manufacture, for example Ineos, Basell Polyolefins, Sabic, Inovyn and Lotte Chemicals, are a range of specialist materials, masterbatch and additives manufacturers, all helping to push the uses of plastics to their technological limits. With the UK’s plastics processors consuming 3.3 million tonnes of material the UK remains one of the top five processors of plastics in the EU.
Source: Polyglobe, www.polyglobe.net
The UK currently produces around half as much polymer as it consumes (in 2020 this was 1.67m tonnes produced vs 3.3m tonnes consumed) and is therefore heavily reliant on imports of raw material.
Source: EUROMAP
6. Plastics Processing in the UK
The processors are at the heart of the industry providing the vital nexus between raw material suppliers designers, toolmakers, customers and the processors’ own unique blend of engineering skills.
The raw material production component of the sector is capital-intensive and the large bulk of personnel are employed in plastics processing which, despite being increasingly automated, is still relatively people-intensive due to the many individual tasks which need to be accomplished in sectors such as insert and assembly work.
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To focus on the UK Strengths, firstly we have local sources of feedstock’s for manufacturing polymer and additives. We are still a significant oil producer although production in the North Sea is now well over its peak and our rich geological deposits on the mainland mean that almost the full range of additives is manufactured in the UK. Consequently we have particular strengths in specialist materials manufacture, compounding and masterbatch production.
As an entreport trading nation going back to the seventeenth century the need for packaging has always been important and today the UK has major strength in plastics packaging innovation. It is the country which invented ‘polythene’ in 1933 and was one of the first countries to exploit the amenability of polyester to the stretch-blow moulding process for the manufacture of PET. Packaging remains a strong area of growth with innovation in PET pushing the boundaries of usage and ready meals and smart packaging creating new opportunities for plastics.
The Pharmaceutical and medical industry in the UK, although representing comparatively small tonnages of material is a high AV sector and driving strong growth in the UK Plastics Sector. An analysis of the world’s top 100 medicines reveals that, after the USA, Britain’s pharmaceutical companies’ market share is more than all its European competitors combined.
A further area of strength is the supply of small-scale processing equipment and ancillary equipment. In the UK we have evolved away from the production of mainstream processing equipment and have put our national effort behind assisted processor and ancillary equipment which can add significant value to manufacturing. The UK plastics machinery sector is typified by efficient, innovative and flexible companies that are operating at the cutting-edge of technology. As such they are able to respond quickly to their customers’ new requirements and ensure that they remain highly competitive in the global market.
The many small and medium sized companies that make up the plastics machinery sector in UK tend to serve niche markets and focus is on high-quality, bespoke often small scale processing machines, testing equipment and process measurement, control and ancillary equipment. In addition to this the industry has responded to the implementation of stringent recycling legislation in the UK by developing a range of reprocessing technologies and equipment, and it is now a world-leader in this field.
In terms of supply of processing machines, the UK has a range of producers supplying most key processing technologies.
British companies are reknowned for many ancilliary innovations that are driving improvement in plastics processing. The UK boasts a strong materials testing sector serving the plastics industry, as well as rubber, composites and associated textile manufacturers. Test equipment companies Lloyd Instruments, Instron and Tinius Olsen have excellent reputations in providing accurate measurement of the physical properties of plastics products down to very precise detail. UK specialists also lead the world in the development of new testing methods at ISO and ASTM standards as well as providing engineering, service, training and front-line support.
8 Other Resources
Please find below a series of links to other resources including publications, surveys and reports which will provide further information on the plastics industry. If you would like more information on the materials or processes used in the plastics industry visit the BPF's plastipedia source.
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