International Analysis of the Steel Drum Market

For a long time,55 gallon steel drums have been considered the mainstay of chemical industry packaging, and the most widely used industrial packaging for many types of hazardous and non-hazardous materials is still steel drums.

2003-2016 Changes in US GDP, industrial production and steel drum production

US GDP changes, US industrial production changes, and steel drum production from 2003-2016

Today, global steel drum production exceeds 220 million drums, equivalent to producing about600,000 drums every day. Laid end-to-end, they would go around the Earth more than 4.5 times.

Since the invention of steel drums in 1905, the steel drum industry has had a powerful impact on the global and regional economy. Steel drums and steel drum parts have been shown to have good economic development trends both in the US and other countries.

Before the Second World War, steel drum manufacturing was mainly concentrated in the US, Europe, and Japan. Over the past 20 years, steel production has shifted from developed countries to developing countries and emerging markets such as India, Russia, and China. Similarly, the user markets in these countries and regions are growing and changing. From 2000 to 2010, global chemical production in emerging economies grew by 84%, mainly driven by China, which accounted for 65% of the increase.

2007-2017 Global demand for paints and coatings

The chemical production center is shifting, and crude oil production bases are also beginning to shift. In 1980, the US and Saudi Arabia were the main production bases for chemicals and crude oil, by 1997, the production base had expanded to Russia and China. This expanded to South America in 2016. At the same time, global demand for paints and coatings has also increased in the Asia-Pacific region, reflecting the growth of emerging economies in the region. Changes in user markets have had a huge impact on the production of steel drums around the world.

As further research was done on the relationship between steel drum production, including metal drum cap seal production, and domestic industrial production, the US discovered an important trend, namely that steel drum production is closely related to changes in domestic production and industrial product data. These data, when compared to industrial products, more accurately reflect the market for the use of steel drums.

The number of steel drums sold in each region also varies, reflecting the growth of emerging economies in the Asia-Pacific region. In the US, the total production of steel drums is 26,788,449 drums. In contrast, we estimate the total production of steel drums in the Asia-Pacific region (AOSD) to be 110,000,000 drums.