Swiss plastics industry: sales of CHF 14.4 billion achieved despite pandemic

The Swiss plastics industry is dominated by SMEs with an average of 10 to 40 employees. This industry thus has a typically Swiss composition. The industry consists of around 800 companies with a total of 33000 employees. The companies in the industry are united in the umbrella organization KUNSTSTOFF.swiss. This also includes globally active companies such as EMS Chemie, Sika, Geberit and Georg Fischer, to name but a few.

Pleasingly small decline in sales

Every year, the Swiss Plastics Industry Association collects its economic data. The recently presented figures gave a pleasing impression: The industry seems to have come through the pandemic-related crisis quite well. In 2020, for example, it generated sales of 14.4 billion Swiss francs. This is only 5 percent less than in the previous year. Association President Silvio Ponti and Managing Director Kurt Röschli were correspondingly pleased: "One reason for this is certainly the flexible handling of the crisis by the companies and the unbroken demand for plastics precisely when hygiene becomes the main issue, because plastic protects," Silvio Ponti emphasized.

Winners and losers in the Swiss plastics industry

The largest tranche of industry sales - around 67% - comes from plastics processing. The decline in sales there was marginal at 1%. For raw materials traders, the drop in sales amounts to just under 8% and reflects the still very low prices at the time. According to the survey, the machine and periphery suppliers lost the most with just over 30%. This impressively shows how restrained processors were with regard to investments and how they immediately cut back on them out of respect for the crisis.

Of course, there are also winners: these include companies that manufactured partitions from Plexiglas. They had a massive upswing of around 60% and were in some cases barely able to deliver due to the sudden demand. Manufacturers of respirator components and disinfectant containers were only able to meet the massive demand by adding shifts. Mask manufacturers and distributors - masks are also largely made of plastics - experienced a rapid upward trend.

Packaging and construction: plastics protect the climate

With a share of around 40% each, the packaging and construction segments continue to be the areas in which plastics are used most. Here, plastics make a major contribution to climate protection. They insulate, save energy and reduce food waste. The use of plastics makes means of transport lighter, which thus require less fuel. The insulation (mainly plastics) of buildings means that less heating is needed. Suitable plastic packaging makes food last longer, and less has to be produced and thrown away. This also contributes to climate protection. By the way, packaging accounts for only 1.5 - 2% of the CO2 footprint of the packaged product.

The industry association's figures also show that the use of recyclates will increase from 8% (2019) to 14% in 2020. This is due to improved production processes and companies' attention to recycling. For some companies in the logistics and construction sectors, shares of around 30% of recycled material are quite the order of the day, which once again underscores the recyclability of plastics.

Skilled workers and Switzerland as a workplace

Although the number of companies with 743 has decreased compared to the previous year (854), the number of employees with 33'029 compared to 33'935 shows a pleasing stability, as KUNSTSTOFF.swiss further reports. Especially since, as President Silvio Ponti emphasized, this is not mainly due to the crisis, but much more to the lack of skilled workers. Managing Director Kurt Röschli added: "The industry offers many attractive and promising training positions. After all, plastics technologists are extremely sought-after skilled workers."

The pandemic has once again shown how important Switzerland is as a production location. The proportion of skilled workers increased from just over 64% to almost 69%, to the detriment of semi-skilled workers, whose proportion decreased. Overall, however, there is still a major shortage of skilled workers in the Swiss plastics industry. Today, only about 75 apprentices graduate from plastics trades every year - but there would be twice as many apprenticeships.

Source: www.kunststoff.swiss