While there are a few large companies, the industry comprises mainly small to medium-scale enterprises with varying degrees of equipment sophistication. The majority of these companies are situated in the CAMANAVA (Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, Valenzuela) area, while others are located in Manila, Pasig, and the CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon) region.
The main production processes include film and sheet extrusion, injection molding, compression molding, extrusion blow molding, injection blow molding, injection stretch blow molding, pipe and profile extrusion, net and twine extrusion, woven sack extrusion and weaving, sheet thermoforming, printing, lamination, slitting, bag forming, and recycling.
A survey conducted by PPIA in May 2012 revealed that most companies adopt top-of-the-line, state-of-the-art technologies from Europe for their operations, especially large-scale industries with high-quality and volume demands. On the other hand, companies using old, outdated, and cheap equipment still exist, particularly in small-scale industries where volume requirements are low. The strength of these smaller companies lies in their ability to keep overheads low and to modify and retrofit their machines to improve efficiency. For this reason, the industry is given an overall medium rating for its operations.
