According to a study by the specialist research company PCI Films Consulting, demand for BOPP film (accounting for 50% of consumption on the continent, with applications primarily in the packaging sector) should start to grow again over the next fifteen years in western Europe. Demand is expected to maintain a faster pace than recent years, when the economic crisis slowed consumption and there was a shift in demand towards eastern Europe, while the west favoured PP cast film. Production capacity should increase thanks to new production lines (there are reports of a number of new lines in Russia and one in Portugal), in addition to increasing utilisation of existing ones.