EUROPEAN PLASTICS NEWS
Published: September 4, 2014 11:32 am ET
Updated: September 4, 2014 11:36 am ET
PCI Films Consulting Ltd. has released a new report on the nylon film market.
The Guilsborough, England-based research company says that since the development of biaxially oriented nylon (BOPA) film in the 1970s, the 2-stage sequential stretching technology has been favored for the production of the material, but it has discovered that this has changed in recent years with end users requiring simultaneous stretching technology to be used to give them more balanced film properties.
The global BOPA film market is worth an estimated $1.1 billion according to PCI and the author of the report, Simon King, said: “In today’s BOPA film market users are telling us that a balanced film with better dimensional stability and less shrinkage is particularly important for some applications.
“It is not surprising then that over the next five years most of the new BOPA film lines to be installed are based on simultaneous stretching technology to meet the technical demands of these high-end applications.”
PCI says the global market consumed 230,000 metric tons of BOPA film in 2013 and expects it to grow by 60,000 metric tons in the next year. For the growing demand for balanced films to be met PCI estimates that 25 percent of installed global BOPA film capacity will be using the simultaneous stretching technique for production of BOPA by 2018, compared to 16 percent in 2013. | 
