China still in slow motion

The Chinese plastic converting industry showed a 5% growth during the first nine months of 2013, versus the 8.9% increase recorded in 2012, the latter being in turn much far from the +20% reached in 2011 and in the previous years, which characterised by a real boom in the local industry. This is what the management of the China Plastics Processing Industry Association (CPPIA) revealed at a summit recently held in Foshan. This slowdown is due to the increase in raw materials and manpower costs as well as to the economic challenges the Chinese industry has to deal with.
According to the CPPIA, the Chinese converters will have to get used to this sluggish trend, although a limited growth of 5% always represents a better result than the +3% shown by the global plastic products sector. This situation may be improved by shifting the focus of the Chinese industrial model from investments and cost-savings to technology innovation, energy saving, the use of higher performance materials, and so on.
Last January, the Chinese association foresaw an 8% growth for the first half of 2013. The last quarter of the year seems to promise a business increase, anyway, which could translate into a 7% growth for the whole 2013.