Global Glass Packaging Market to Exceed $36 Billion by 2015, According to New Report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

Though the market faces a growing threat from plastics, the sector is expected to witness sustained growth as glass continues to remain a superior packaging choice for select food and beverages. Further environmental concerns related to other packaging alternatives and rising disposable incomes and retail boom in the rapidly developing countries of Asia-Pacific, Africa, Middle East, and Latin America is expected to drive future growth.

San Jose, CA (Vocus) October 13, 2010 -- The glass packaging market, already reeling from reduced margins due to pressure from higher input costs of soda ash and natural gas in 2007-2008, was further bruised by the onslaught of the global economic downturn and the credit crunch. Going forwards, the market is estimated to remain stagnant or grow marginally until 2011 and gain momentum thereafter.

Europe is expected to maintain its lead as the largest geographic market for glass packaging, as stated by the new market research report on glass packaging market. Consumer beverages represent the largest end-use segment for glass packaging followed by food. Asia-Pacific is expected to post strong gains in coming years, mostly due to promising performance from the Chinese and Indian markets. Growing affluence, high disposable income, and increase in consumption of alcoholic beverages is expected to drive the glass packaging sector in these markets. The market is also expected to deliver healthy growth patterns in specific regional markets paralleling the consumption trends in food and beverages sector. For instance, increasing trend towards flavored mineral water in Turkey, and the growing beer consumption in Russia is expected to foster favorable growth opportunities for glass containers in these markets.

The greatest threat to the glass packaging industry is posed by plastics, which has seen rapid advancements in recent years. The high growth in the plastics packaging market is mainly attributed to technological advancements, and the material’s inherent recyclability and longer lasting properties. In recent years however, glass is witnessing renewed focus following increasing health and environmental concerns over chemicals associated with plastics and other alternatives. In addition, glass containers can be fully recycled and reused and unlike their plastic counterparts, can be easily sorted for recycling based on different colors and shapes. The glass industry is undertaking vigorous research initiatives to develop lighter yet stronger glass containers, as well as novel recycling efforts to increase the collection of superior quality cullet to make glass containers. In developed markets such as the US, glass is still a formidable packaging standard with respect to quality and performance for various pharmaceutical, food, wine, beer, and liquors compared to other packaging materials. However, glass-clear plastics that are developed by using advanced technology are gradually eating away market share from glass.

The global glass packaging market is highly fragmented, except in the US and Europe, where the top three players constitute about 80% -90% of the total sales. In Asia-Pacific as well as in South America, the glass packaging industry is flooded with numerous players, most of which are regional, serving a limited geographic area. Leading players profiled in the report include Anchor Glass Container Corporation, Anadolu Cam, Ardagh Glass Group, Gerresheimer Group, Koa Glass Co., Owens-Illinois Inc., Saint Gobain, among others.

The report titled “Glass Packaging: A Global Strategic Business Report” announced by Global Industry Analysts, Inc., provides a comprehensive review of market trends, product profile, end-use applications, technological developments, and recent corporate activity. Analysis is presented for major geographic markets such as United States, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, Russia, Asia-Pacific and South America. Historic and current & future value and unit analytics for the period 2000 through 2015 are provided in terms of end-use applications including Consumer Beverages, Food, and Others.

For more details about this comprehensive market research report, please visit – http://www.strategyr.com/Glass_Packaging_Market_Report.asp

About Global Industry Analysts, Inc. Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (GIA) is a reputed publisher of off-the-shelf market research. Founded in 1987, the company is globally recognized as one of the world’s largest market research publishers. The company employs over 800 people worldwide and publishes more than 1200 full-scale research reports each year. Additionally, the company also offers thousands of smaller research products including company reports, market trend reports, and industry reports encompassing all major industries worldwide.

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