According to P&M Corporate Finance, there was nearly a quarter drop in mergers and acquisitions activity in the global plastics sector in the first half of 2013. According to the data gathered, there was a decline of 23% in M&A activity in comparison to the same period last year.

P&M Corporate Finance, an M&A firm in the US, tracked 146 plastics and packaging deals globally. The data included deals up to June 11, 2013. The data reported drops in several end markets of the plastic sector. These included decreases of 31%, 21%, and 47% in the food and beverage, industrial, and consumer end markets. In the processing sector, there was a 50% drop in blow moulding deals from 16 to 8. Injection moulding had the largest drop in number of deals, losing 20 deals in the first half of the year.

Meanwhile, Plastics News reported Milacron's acquisition of Mold-Masters to be the largest dollar-value deal. Milacron acquired Mold-Master for US$970 million (Eur723 million). Another large deal was the purchase of Nypro by Jabil Circuit for US$665 million (Eur491 million). CCL Industries' purchase of Avery Dennison Corp.'s two packaging units for US$500 million (Eur380 million) was also a large deal.