Locational Patterns of the European PVC

IndustryTian Yu

10,11,2008

Thesis topic

Logistics Knowledge

Research for Plastics

Technology Programme

Location: Finland--Europe

Plastics Industry

Development

Thesis Topic

For Large-volume plastic materials, study the volumes, traits, advantages and disadvantages, and applications.

Select one plastic raw material to study and mention reasons for choosing it.

To understand structure and manufacturing of PVC, and methods for extrusion of PVC pipes and profiles.

To know different regions’ PVC consumption and estimate the future consumption trend.

Use market research methods, to obtain information on PVC producing plants and PVC extrusion plants in the European Union.

Find location of PVC producing and PVC extrusion plants (geographical distribution) by logistics methods.

To understand the current location of PVC plants in Europe, in comparison with locational theory.

Objectives

Plastic with 100 years history and plays an important role in people’s life.

Plastic is commonly applied for different areas.For instance, Medicine, Agriculture, Construct,

Manufacture, Aviation, etc. Product: Package, pipe, profile, toys, clothing,

film, cable, etc. Due to it is substitution for many other raw

material (metal, woods), and its lower price in addition, plastic becomes a kinds of popular and favorite material.

Introduciton

Literature Survey-Plastic material

The figure shows top two large volumes plastic materials consumption were PP (polypropylene) 24% and PVC (polymer of vinyl) 19% in 2007

2007-2009 will be the peak of Net PVC Capacity

To maintain eubiosis, reducing the input of original raw materials (forest, mineral resources), PVC as one kind of substitution raw material to wood, aluminum and iron.

Lower cost becomes its main advantage. PVC is easy to manufacture and strong formability, in additional.

The infrastructure construction industry has a large requirement of PVC indeed.

PVC is widely used, in Pipes & Fittings and Profiles like window, door, sheeting, floor and ceiling.

Literature Survey-PVC Selection

Literature Survey-PVC traits (Adv vs. Dis)

AdvantageAnti-fire, acid and alkali corrosion, light quality, heat

insulation and preservation, Good stability and dielectric property, durable, aging-

resistance, High bending strength and ductilityEasy to shape, construct

DisadvantageNot good at stand fire resistance and unstable under high

temperatureLow chemical resistanceHCL (Hydrogen chloride) discharged from the reaction

Literature Survey-PVC application

Pipes & Fittings, and Profile represent the two larger PVC application.

Pipe and Profile

Pipe:Hard PVC pipe is mixed with stabilizers, lubricants, and processing aids of prilling to extrusion molding. The processes steps are: supply materials powder - weighing- mixed extrusion prilling- extrusion molding- cooling- cut- test- delivery

Profile:PVC compound- vented silos three days to two months-warmed 380 0C- extruder- the following step is similar to pipe extrusion- cooling by air or water- cut

Literature Survey -Pipe and Profile extrusion system

Extruder

The world PVC consumption has 3% increasing rate per year.

Research Results- World PVC consumption

Western Europe 18% + Eastern Europe 4%= 22%European Total= 30,3 Million Tons *22%= 6,7 Million Tons.

Research Results- World PVC consumption

PVC World consumption in 2005

Research Results-European Consumption

Research Results-Application Sector

Consumption of PVC by the Western European construction industry

Total consumption of PVC in the Eastern & Central European industry is 474.000 tons when including the PVC used in cables installed in buildings.

Research Results-European PVC resin producer

The top 10 European resin producers account for over 98% of total capacity.

European PVC resin producer plants Location

PipelifeDyka and Sotra-SeperefUralitaAlphacanDietzel-Univolt

Research Results -European PVC pipe extrusion plants

Profine-groupVekaTessenderloDeceuninckRehauGealan

Research Results -European PVC Profile extrusion plants

Results1) All the PVC resins’ Plant locations are almost along the

coastline.2) The total number of PVC resin plants are 18 which is

smaller than the other two type of plants.3) All the PVC Plants are in Western Europe in the more

developed countries. On the other hand, there are a lot of PVC production extrusion plants distributed in Central-Eastern Europe and Scandinavia.

4) There is no Pipe producer plant in Italy while there are 3 Pipe producer in Finland and 2 in Sweden. On the other hand, there is one Profile producer in Italy and none in the other two compared countries.

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

Analysis 1)oil transport by shipEasy to get raw materialSaving transportation cost

Analysis 2)PVC plants provide the raw material to various

industries (Pipe, Profile, Cable…)The small number of PVC resin plants not means

small capacity

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

RESULTS AND ANALYSISAnalysis 3) PVC is a raw material is

quite easy to transport. Weight, size, and form it is easier to transport than the end products, pipe and profile. So to organize many pipe and profile plants in one country, transportation cost is the only factor to be considered. This is in keeping with the location theory.

Analysis 3)Import PVC is cheap than build Plants in

Eastern- Central EuropeSet PVC Production plant there to grab

local marketTransportation fee is large for the PVC

production They need more PVC production for the

infrastructure construction

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

Analysis 4)

Nordic dislike plastic profile and they prefer to use aluminum rather than plastic.

They like to use wood because there are many forests and nice wooden products.

Italy prefers PP pipe compare to PVC pipe

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

DiscussionNot exact location map-eyeball technologyThe estimated position is enough and reliable.Results is accurate for all cases. Small capacity plants were dropped to simplify

thesis and easier achieve results. Other options of doing this thesis

Use different location techniques (eyeball, grid and network) to calculate the optimal transport route for the PVC industry.

keep the same topic by changing the research object to Asia particularly China.

Further research could be about other raw material for plastic like PP, PE using the same topic.

DISCUSSION

Sources

Thank you for you attention!