I wish I'd written that does a good job of explaining the current scarcity of thin PET film in Europe and North America, and makes a pretty strong case that the situation is unlikely to change anytime soon. The situation has been reported in a few trade publications, including our own, but this is the best article on it I've seen so far.
The article is based on an interview with a PET films processor who last month increased his prices by 20%. As the processor explains, lack of investment in the processing community over the last decade, coupled with a shift by some processors to extruding higher-margin, thicker polyester films such as those used in TV screens, and some pretty drastic changes in the material's base of suppliers, all have combined to create the shortage.