PET resin: Overview
Why fizzy drinks and bottled water chose PET
What this tab covers What the chemical is, how big its market is, what it is used for (with shares, volumes, why it wins and what could replace it), and its chain from raw material to end user. Ends with three things to remember.Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin is made by reacting purified terephthalic acid (PTA) with monoethylene glycol (MEG), then building up chain length by solid-state polymerisation. It is clear, strong, a good gas barrier and light, so it holds most of the world's bottled water and soft drinks. About 27-30 Mt of resin is made a year, outside the much larger polyester fibre market. China has overbuilt PET resin capacity. PET is the one plastic that is widely recycled bottle-to-bottle, and India now requires recycled PET in rigid packaging under EPR.
Volume about 27-30 Mt a year of PET resin (2024-2025, indicative: Plastics Europe PET share of about 6.2% of 430.9 Mt gives about 27 Mt; MEG tile basis of 28% x 35 Mt MEG at 0.335 t per t gives about 29 Mt) Market value about $22-26 billion a year (indicative: about 28 Mt x $800-900/t, 2025 Asian levels) Growth about 3-4% a year, following packaged beverages and polyester (indicative, PTA tile) Plastics Europe via Chemical Week, Oct 2025 (total plastics); PET share indicative; MEG and PTA tiles; value derived (indicative)Key uses
| Use | Share | Annual volume | Why this commodity | Alternatives |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water and carbonated soft-drink bottles | 50% | about 14 Mtbasis | PET is shatterproof, clear and about one-tenth the weight of glass, and holds CO2 well enough for fizzy drinks. A 500 ml water bottle can weigh under 10 g. Deposit and collection systems make used bottles a valuable recycling feed. indicative (basis: industry demand splits) | glass aluminium cans refillable bottles cartons PEF (bio-based, emerging) |
| Other bottles and jars (edible oil, juice, personal care, pharma, spirits) | 18% | about 5 Mtbasis | Clarity and chemical resistance suit edible oil and personal-care packs; hot-fill and barrier grades extend PET into juices, sauces and beer. indicative | HDPE glass pouches |
| Thermoformed sheet and food trays | 12% | about 3.4 Mtbasis | APET and CPET sheet make clear punnets, clamshells and ovenable trays; trays can use recycled bottle flake. indicative | polystyrene PP moulded fibre |
| BOPET film (packaging laminates, labels, electrical, solar backsheets) | 10% | about 2.8 Mtbasis | Biaxially oriented PET film is strong, heat-stable and printable; it is the outer layer of many laminates and a base film for electrical insulation. Indian BOPET makers are large exporters (indicative). indicative | BOPP mono-material PE or PP laminates paper |
| Strapping, engineering and other (PET strap, monofilament, compounds) | 10% | about 2.8 Mtbasis | PET strapping replaces steel bands; glass-filled PET is used in electrical parts. Much strapping uses recycled flake. indicative | steel strapping PP strapping PBT |
From raw material to user
- Paraxylene to PTA; ethylene to MEG About 0.66 t PX per t PTA (PTA tile) and about 0.6 t ethylene per t MEG (MEG tile); China also makes MEG from coal.
- Esterification and melt polycondensation About 0.86 t PTA and 0.335 t MEG make 1 t PET with antimony catalyst at about 280°C under vacuum, reaching IV about 0.60 dl/g (indicative).
- Solid-state polymerisation (SSP) Chips are crystallised and heated at about 200-220°C for 10-20 hours to IV 0.76-0.85 dl/g for bottles, which also strips acetaldehyde (indicative). Melt-to-resin plants skip SSP.
- Preform injection and stretch blow moulding Converters dry chips below about 50 ppm moisture, mould preforms and blow them into bottles at the filling plant (indicative).
- Collection and recycling Bottles are collected, sorted, washed into flake and either decontaminated to food-grade rPET or spun into recycled polyester fibre. India has about 200,000-300,000 t/yr of FSSAI-approved food-grade rPET capacity (2026).
Made from (commodity table)
Oil Crude oilThree things to know
- World bottle-grade PET capacity was about 34.7 Mt in 2022, with over 10 Mt more announced for 2022-2025, 6.5 Mt of it in China (Czapp, 2022).
- PET resin's cradle-to-gate footprint is about 2.2 t CO2e per t, of which about 85% comes from PTA and MEG (derived from PTA and MEG tiles).
- India requires 30% recycled content in rigid plastic packaging in 2025-26, rising to 60% in 2028-29; food-grade rPET demand at 30% is about 350,000 t a year (Readon, Jan 2026).