Onshore Impacts of Offshore Oil

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) has been produced commercially for 50 years but most of the expansion has taken place since the end of the 1939–45 War. From its early beginning in Germany the market has grown to the present 12 million tonnes per year worth £5 billion a year in turnover. It is manufactured by over 70 major companies in more than 30 countries. In turn each of these 70 manufacturers may have up to 100 customers who fabricate articles from PVC many of whom are themselves part of large organisations. The growth of this large market and the involvement of many major companies has stimulated much development work over the years on the manufacturing process, on the product produced and on its subsequent fabrication. For example, a typical manufacturer may have up to 100 or more technically qualified people working on various ways of improving the production and subsequent processing of PVC. Such a large effort has led to important advances in the technologies employed in the processes used to produce PVC and in the ways in which it is subsequently converted to the final article.