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Polyester film as discussed in this report refers to a high-performance biaxially oriented (BOPET) film made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin. The polyester film business has become increasingly global. Global demand for polyester film was just over 1.5 thousand metric tons in 2004. The larger polyester film producers have international facilities that allow them to balance their product lines by shipping PET resin raw materials from one plant to another and by manufacturing various films on a globally optimized basis. Some of the largest producers of polyester film include DuPont-Teijin, Mitsubishi, SKC, Eastman Kodak, 3M and Toray.
The following pie chart shows consumption of polyester film by major region:
By far the largest polyester film producing region in the world is Asia. China, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Taiwan accounted for 894 thousand metric tons in 2004 or over 50% of the world’s production. Other large producing regions include the United States and Western Europe, although these two regions have recently seen a shift of production to Asia. An additional 256 thousand metric tons are produced in other countries like India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
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