the output of etma members in 2013 totalled almost 10.5 billion tubes, thus confirming the stable upward trend in place since 2010. market growth is slightly higher than the growth rates for the european gross domestic product, european industrial production, and private consumptionetma secretary general gregor spengler was more than pleased with these results &ldquothe longterm stable trend for tubes in a still difficult economic climate is what makes us so confident. but new records are not really what we are after. we are more interested in positioning the tube industry as a reliable partner in the contested european packaging market. our member companies have given impressive proof in recent years that they can fully satisfy the demands of their customers for evershorter production times and smaller batch sizes, for evermore flexible delivery conditions and tougher quality standards. they accomplish this by maintaining a strict customer orientation and constantly optimizing production processes, by investing in research and development and being enormously creative and innovative. all these strengths make us expect the future to be positive overall.&rdquomarket shares for individual categories of tubes have also been extremely stable. aluminium tubes account for 40 per cent of the total european production output. they are followed by laminate tubes and plastic tubes with nearly equal market shares of about 30 per cent each. most tubes are supplied to the cosmetic industry more than 40 per cent of the total output goes to this sector. the dentalcare and pharmaceutical markets come next, with a share of just over 20 per cent each. food accounts for nearly 10 per cent whereas products for the household and for industrial and technical applications make up the remaining share of about 5 per cent.
