Barton Fabrications spoke to 14 companies and organisations for their views on demand for silo storage and the state of the market.

The company found that the key demand factors for silo storage, included growth in demand for customer products, a shift from sack to silo raw material supply and supply chain security concerns.

“The need for increased silo capacity is an obvious end result of growing customer product sales. This was reported at both the bulk and smaller sack supply ends of the raw material supply market suggesting that the whole industry is buoyant, not just the bulk end,” said Mark Barton, Managing Director of Barton Fabrications.

“With regards to shifting from sack to silo storage, there are several benefits. Payback periods can be as low as 12 months or less, there are site space saving advantages, improved safety from reduced manual handling and lower labour costs.”

The company found that some of the other less frequently mentioned reasons for the growth in silo capacity included, increased buying from non-European sources, necessitating larger UK stockholding and the production of larger moulded products which, due to shipping costs, favours UK manufacture.

Barton Fabrications concludes it is very encouraged by the feedback received that reflects a buoyant plastics industry and believes that the increased demand for polymer raw material storage silos is not only driven by strong UK demand for plastic products, but also by user concerns about supply chain security over the last few years.

Barton added: “The supply chain security issue seems to have been driven, at least partially, from shortages seen in the industry over the last few years resulting from plant failures causing suppliers to claim force majeure on supply contracts. Investing in additional storage capacity allows the manufacturer a longer timescale to secure alternative raw material supplies.”

Mark Barton with a silo under construction at the company’s manufacturing facility near Bristol.