He is co-author of two technical books and published articles in plastic related magazines. During my professional carreer I made more than 10 presentations on international plastics events.

Membership: Society of Plastics Engineers, Hungarian Chemical Association Plastics Section

Language skill:          English and German fluent, Russian basic

Family status:            Married, 3 adult children, 3 grandchildren

Abstract of presentation

Thermoforming in the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEE)
(Abstract of presentation made by ECEBD Ltd.)

Plastic converting is rapidly developing in the CEE states, the yearly growth rates are 2-3 times higher than in Western  Europe. More than 6 million tons of commodity and engineering resins were converted to plastic products in this region in 2006.

As an introduction the structure of the branch will be illustrated by charts according to country, resin type, processing method and application of plastic products.

Sheet extrusion is growing more quickly than the average of plastic converting.
Significant part of sheets are processed by thermoforming to ready products used in different  applications.

In the year of 2006 about 250 Kt of commodity plastics were thermoformed in the CEE region. The next countries have the biggest shares: Poland and Russia (~30 % each) Hungary, the Czech Republic and the Ex-Yugoslavian (~10 % each), Ukraine (~5 %).
The forecasted development rates are higher in the Eastern than in the Central European states.

Distribution according to resin type used: Polystyrene and polypropylene are the dominating materials used for thermoforming with a share of slightly over 40 % each.
PP is growing more rapidly than PS. The next group is PVC and PET with about 5 % share each. PVC is loosing ground and PET is developing rapidly. Some PE and ABS are also used.

The two main  application areas of thermoformed products are packaging and technical products. Food packaging ( for example cups and containers for dairy products, also boxes and trays for sweets etc.) is the most important application. This products has to compete to injection molded and laminated products.
Thermoformed technical parts are used mainly in the car industry.

There are many possibilities for thermoformed products in the CEE region:
The GDP and general standard of living is increasing, so the general consumption is increasing fast. Sophisticated packaging methods will have higher and higher share.
The need of technical products is also increasing rapidly.
Forecasts for the next five years will be presented.

ECEBD Ltd. Is a plastic consulting company specialized for the CEE region.
It has its own database called ChemIT which contains all important data of more than 6000 plastic converting firms operating in the region.