Latin America Polypropylene (PP) Packaging Film Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The Latin America polypropylene (pp) packaging film market is expected to reach a CAGR of 7.5% during the forecast period (2021 - 2026). The growth of the market is attributed to its multiple applications due to the low coefficient of friction, extraordinary impact, and chemical resistance. Moreover, the demand is likely to increase across the region due to its optimum moisture absorption properties and lightweight.

Key Highlights

• The demand for flexible packaging is rising faster than many other forms. It includes trends, like e-commerce, digital printing, which further drive market development and growth. Customers are increasingly becoming more eager to pay extra for certain product attributes boosted by flexible packaging. This is likely to boost the market growth.
• Moreover, with the growing food industry in the region, the demand for packaging is significantly driven by the industry, and food enterprises across the region are adopting BOPP solutions as part of their packaging needs. With the growing demand, manufacturers in the region are expanding their production capabilities.
• For household and personal care products, flexible plastic materials, such as polyamine and polypropylene, provide packages with outstanding visibility, appealing structure, and safety features.Polypropylene (pp) packaging film is majorly used in a wide variety of applications such as packaging of beauty products, as they can protect the inside materials from damages caused by oxidation and improve the shelf life.
• Latin America region is one of the prominent exporters of raw materials for China. Due to the recent shutdown in production industries, exports from Brazil are facing the brunt of it due to the outbreak of COVID-19.Moreover, Brazil's economy is expected to observe a significant slump over the coming year due to coronavirus. According to Banco Central do Brasil, Brazil's GDP growth as of January 3, 2020, stood at 2.3%, and as of March 13, 2020, it is downgraded to 1.68%. This is expected to influence all the major industries operating in the country until the end of 2020. ​
• Overall, Latin America's economic condition is expected to reach stagnation, and large economies in the region are expected to observe mild contractions. The COVID-19 outbreak and its associated financial implications will push Latin America into recession in 2020, and SP Global forecasts the region's GDP to contract 1.3% in 2020 and bounce back to 2.7% in 2021. ​

Key Market Trends

BOPP to Drive the Market Growth

• Biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) is a polypropylene film that is biaxially oriented. Owing to features like increased toughness, enhanced clarity, and improved barrier properties to water vapor and oxygen, BOPP films are increasingly adopted in the fields of applications, like packaging, labeling, and lamination.
• These films are preferred substrate for food and beverage packaging, owing to its inherent moisture barrier properties, sealability, high clarity, and graphic reproduction, and shelf appeal, with the best possibilities of the pack being a monolayer/homogeneous structure. For instance, according to ABIA, the net revenue of the food and beverage industry in Brazil during 2018 stood at BRL 656 billion and growing steadily. ​
• Latin America is witnessing significant investments in BOPP manufacturing, as the enterprises’ propensity to produce locally is increasing. For instance, in 2019, Taghleef Industries completed the acquisition of Biofilm, expanding its presence in the region. With this acquisition, Taghleef secured its position as the prominent supplier of BOPP films in Latin America. The acquisition increased the production capacity of the company to over 500,000 tons. The company has secured a strong position in the supply chain in Latin America by spreading its production sites in Cartagena, Colombia, and Altamira, Mexico.

Food Industry to Dominate the Market Growth

• With the changing lifestyle, there is a spur in demand for packaged food in the region, which further augments the demand for PP packaging films in the industry. Brazil and Mexico are amongst the significant contributor to the demand growth in the region.
• Mexico has a strong food processing industry that leads to Mexican brands like Bimbo, PepsiCo, Lala, and Nestle, etc. Moreover, it has smaller domestic companies that have established supply channels with major warehouse food clubs across Mexico, including Costco and Sam’s Club, which serve a large portion of the foodservice sector. This further drive the growth of the market in the region.
• Moreover, the growing need to maintain product quality, sustainability, aesthetics, and density and extend the shelf life of the products are significant factors that propel the vendors in the industry to adopt BOPP films. This is expected to fuel market growth over the forecast period.

Competitive Landscape

The Latin America polypropylene (pp) packaging film market is moderately competitive. Players in the market are into a strategic collaboration to expand their presence across the globe. Moreover, with new product launches, innovations in the offerings, players are focusing on increasing their market share. Some of the key developments in the market are:

• In March 2020, Innovia Films Launches an embossable BOPP film Rayoface mBoss which offers increased shelf appeal with foiling capability of the paper-like surface.
• In Oct 2019, Alpek, one of the petrochemical companies in the Americas had signed an agreement with Lotte Chemical Corporation to acquire a 100% stake in Lotte Chemical UK Limited, which owns and operates 350,000 tons per year polyethylene terephthalate (“PET”) facility in Wilton, United Kingdom.

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