The US firm said on Monday that it had entered into licence agreement with Amcor under which the Australian company will be able to supply its domestic and New Zealand customers with PET bottles using the patented Oxbar technology.

The initial application will be for packaging wine.

While PET is one of the fastest growing sectors of the beverage bottling market, taking over from glass and cans as the container of choice, its use has been mainly limited to fizzy drinks and water.

PET, and plastic in general, is not very good at keeping oxygen from permeating the container and reducing the shelf life of products as wine, beer, juices, teas and flavoured water. Oxygen has a degrading effect on flavour, colour and vitamin content for many beverages.

Constar developed a material that when blended with monolayer PET, binds oxygen, thus minimising the permeation of oxygen through the container by chemically binding the molecules.

Earlier this month the Philadelphia-based company entered into an Oxbar agreement with Hyosung, a major converter in Korea, allowing Hyosung to supply its brewery customers with PET beer bottles.