ANNUAL REPORT 2012 - 2013 3.6.4.2 Industry Situation Global competition The global Thin PET film manufacturers can be classified into 3 main categories by size of their production capacity: (i) World majors with production capacity of over 100,000 tons per year (e.g. Dupont-Teijin, Mitsubishi and Toray, Cifu, Polyplex, Flex, Jindal etc). (ii) Mid-size players with production capacity between 50,000 - 100,000 tons per year and (iii) Small / local producers with production capacity of less than 50,000 tons per year Demand for PET film for magnetic media application has been high in the past, prompting major producers to focus mainly on this segment. Competition in the magnetic media segment is thus confined only to these major ones based on their long and well established expertise and experience. For other PET films including thin film, competition is seen among all groups of producers thanks to the consistently rising demand, especially for thin film which is used in packaging, industrial and electrical segments where healthy growth of demand has been recorded in the past. Thus small, mid-sized and major producers (including Polyplex group) have expanded their capacity to cope with the increasing demand in these segments. This has led to the expectation of higher market share by producers in various countries which have surplus production capacity. Domestic competition Thailand没s PET film market is of small scale as compared to the global PET film market. As per our estimates, demand in Thailand is approximately 30,000 tons per year with growth rate for next few years expected to be about 89%.In the past, domestic producers have put emphasis on producing BOPP film rather than any other types. PTL has principally focused on PET film since its inception in Thailand and started with one PET film line, within nine months set up a second line as well. Over the years, PTL has had several other expansions in film capacity i.e value added films like Metallized film, Thermal Lamination film, Silicone Coated film etc and related product diversification like manufacturing CPP film. The Company is in the process of setting up a Thick PET film line, Blown PP line and second Extrusion Coating line in Thailand, which are expected to commence operations within H1 of 2013-14. It is presently having the largest PET Thin film production capacity in the country.
36 Polyplex (Thailand) Public Company Limited