Since the early 1990s the plastics industry has been through a period of rationalisation and change as processors have responded to changes taking place in their oem customer base. The main thrust of these changes has been a need for greater specialisation and lower operating costs. The results of this change are that some companies have left the market, others have sought to build critical mass in their chosen activities. As a consequence, capacity is becoming concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer companies. AMI estimates that the top 50 operating companies in each major process account for major shares of market capacity in Europe as follows:

Therefore if you want your company to be a major force in any of these markets then these top 50 players need to be your customers not least because of their propensity for central purchasing. However finding out who controls the capacity can be difficult. Sometimes subsidiaries are active in many different countries under different names. Occasionally the operating companies are held under confusing names and the pattern of ownership can be deliberately misleading with different national holding companies operating in different countries.

AMI top 50 strategic reports cut through the confusion. For each process or market we tell you who are the most important 50 holding companies or operating groups. For each identified Top 50 player we provide you with :

• Company name & head office
• Ownership
• Comments on strategy and market change
• Financial results
• Individual European operations listed by site including estimates of polymer throughput
• Details of non European operations
• Specific comments on the company’s products
• Details of other plastics/non plastics operations

Top 50 reports are available on

If you are looking for a complete list of processors in specific areas then AMI Publishing produces a range of nineteen Guides to the plastics processing industry in Europe and North America. These Guides aim to provide complete listings of plants carrying out particular plastics processing operations within specified geographic regions so they include both very large and very small plants. Find out more about AMI Guides. All of AMI’s Guides are also published in CD format which provide extra tools and processing power. Find out more about AMI’s CDs and Electronic Databases

AMI also publishes a series of Guides to the plastics processing industries in certain central European countries. Click here to see more details about AMI’s Central European Reports

If you want to know more about the plastics market in Europe and about the different materials and sectors then you need to examine AMI’s plastics industry reports. These authoritative reports provide cost effective data and analysis on trends in the European plastics industry .