A report by PIRA on global trends in PET packaging until 2007 consulted 97 leading polymer suppliers, bottle and sheet converters and end users in Europe. Beer is a growth market, driven extensively by China which by 2004 is expected to have overtaken the USA as the world's leading beer producer. Technological advance over five years will be critical t the development of new beer applications, and the use of small bottles for fresh juices, wine, flavoured alcoholic beverages and health oriented drinks will significantly increase. The EU market is expected to grow from its current 2.165 m/t to 3.297 m/t in 2007. More than 66% of the additional tonnage forecast will be where pet replaces other packaging materials. PET for food packaging is also considered to be a likely growth area.
