The global market for plastic products is growing at about 3% year on year, according to research from the Business Research Co. (Philadelphia) in its report, Plastics Product Manufacturing Global Market 2017. It was worth $1.06 trillion in 2016, and will grow to $1.175 trillion by 2020. The biggest segment is plastic packaging materials and unlaminated film and sheet manufacturing, which accounts for about 20% of the total.

The United States and China are neck and neck as markets for plastic products manufacturers, though China is likely to draw ahead soon, as its market is growing at 3% year on year versus 1.6% for the United States. The markets in India and Brazil, though small by comparison with China and the United States, are the fastest growing of the big economies at more than 8% annually.

The global plastic products markets are highly fragmented, with the top five competitors making up only 3.2% of the total in 2016. However, a process of consolidation is under way. Merger and acquisition activity has been at a very high level recently. Newell Brands, Stone Canyon, CCL Industries, Teijin Ltd., Keter Plastics, RPC Group, Sonoco and Genstar Capital are among the players involved in M&As during the last three years.