The Multilayer World In A Nutshell

Pipe Producers

  1. Multilayer Pipe Producers - Situation 2002
  2. Multilayer Pipe Producers - Situation 2007

Multilayer Pipe Producers - Situation 2002

Due To Popular Demand - Multilayer, A Phenomenon Scrutinised:

KWD-globalpipe, 2002-35. Look at the incredible rise of PE-Al-PE multilayer pipes in Plumbing & Heating over the past few years and you’ll be justifiably impressed. The more striking, then, is the fact that this achievement is not equally shared between the product’s manufacturers. Whereas around half of the 20 manufacturers thrive and expand the other half find it difficult to even keep their production capacity more or less busy. Some quite incredibly even go out of business. +++
A closer look draws an even gloomier picture :

  • the top 4 manufacturers cover over 60% of the European market,
  • another 4 manufactuerers enjoy a rather secure position and
  • the last 12 fight over the remaining 12% of the market.

A one-percent share of the market, however, means a paltry 2 m metres when a multilayer line needs at least 4 m metres to turn a profit. It does not take a finicky controller to find out that one needs at least 3 lines to produce a complete range of sizes economically. +++
Apart from UNIPIPE who make their own extruders which use a special welding technique and who have lots of experience with PE-MD inliners, manufacturers find themselves faced with the need for further investment. Recent trends show a clear move towards electronically cross-linked inliners at the expense of the hitherto more popular Silane method. Golan, Henco, and Hewing own their own irradiation plants and independent cross-linkers such as BGS and Studer have mightily up-graded their facilities, also regarding large sizes and up to 12 metres length. +++
In the core markets Austria, Germany, and Switzerland the building activity is in the doldrums and the substitution of other materials does not make up for slowing turnover. Even those few countries where building still expands don’t show an increase in the sales of multilayer as welded systems make inroads over expensive crimp systems. +++
Growth potential can still be found in export, though. North, East, and South Europe offer possibilities for those manufacturers who have built a portfolio of approvals over the years. An investment of around EUR 1,5 - 2 m will open over a dozen markets although export markets are not unlimited. Top quality pipe may well be sold into China for another few years but Korea and Turkey, among others, can stifle any attempt at selling into their markets by their own manufacturers’ extremely low prices. +++
Future expansion within Europe will largely depend on each manufacturer’s ability of finding new ways of distribution, or of making their product range more attractive, or both.

Multilayer Pipe Producers - Situation 2007

In our new report “Multilayer Pipes Worldwide 2008 we noticed the following
Multlayer Pipe producers (in total: 145)

EUROPE
1 Belgium
11 Germany
1 Great Britain
1 Greece
22 Italy
4 Poland
2 Portugal
6 Spain
3 Switzerland

CHINA
25 PRC
1 ROC

ROW (Rest of World)
1 Argentina
1 Canada
2 India
3 Israel
12 Iran
3 Korea
1 Malaysia
2 Mexico
1 Romania
12 Russia
2 Ukraine
1 Tunisia
10 Turkey
1 United Arabian Emirates

Comments are closed.