Polymers market players

All market players can be classified as follows:

• Producers
• Converters
• Manufacturers
• Traders
• Importers
• Exporters
• Equipments producers
• Groups of companies

Names of market players are given without inverted commas, their organizational and legal status is omitted, as well we apply a general name of a group of companies without names of their subsidiaries. For instance, Basell Polyolefins Orlen Polyolefins Sp.z.o.o. is called simply as Basell Orlen, Dow Europe GmbH – Dow, etc.

Groups
As a rule, each market player represents not only one but several companies, and each of them can actually be a converter, a trader, as a well as a person concerned with. We have grouped those companies that are interrelated through affiliated structures, and we have referred to them as to a single market player.

We understand that large players may have a complicated management system: some are focusing on production assets, others on exports/imports, the third are responsible for domestic supply, the fourth are servicing companies, and the fifth are dealing with general management, etc.

If we hadn’t grouped market players, we would have had serious inaccuracies from the point of view that a company might have big production capacities but there would be no data on production, another one might have data on production but there would be no imports, the third company would have no data on any of the aforementioned but it would deal with domestic supply (by rail). Some companies included 5-6 enterprises; Polyplastic Group, for example, includes eleven companies.

Producers
Producers are companies that are engaged exclusively in production of polymers: i.e. analysis excluded all trading, resale and offshore companies.

Converters
A converter is deemed a company (a group of companies) that has polymer processing capacities and uses them to process polymer feedstock.

Manufacturers
Manufacturers are foreign converters.

Traders
Companies that do not have polymer processing capacities but they have purchased or sold polymer feedstock of equipment.

Equipment Producers
Companies producing polymer processing equipment. The list of equipment producers includes about 450 companies.

Suppliers
Companies that supply feedstock (equipment) to converters. Both traders and producers of feedstock or equipment can be suppliers.

Importers / Exporters
Producers, suppliers, traders and converters can be importers and exporters.