A preform for blow moulding to form a container, the preform being formed of a thermoplastic material, the preform comprising a neck finish at an open end of the preform, an elongate body section and a closed end, wherein the body section has elongate, longitudinally extending inner and outer surfaces each centered about a longitudinal axis of the preform, the inner and outer surfaces defining therebetween a wall of the body section, wherein the wall of the body section has at least one locally thickened portion along the body section, the locally thickened portion being thicker than adjacent first and second thinner portions at respective opposite longitudinal ends of the thickened portion, the thickened portion having an inner surface portion which is nearer to the longitudinal axis than respective first and second inner surface portions of the first and second thinner portions.

A hollow container manufacturing method comprises; an injection molding step of forming a preform having a neck portion and a barrel portion, at least a part of the barrel portion being solid, by injection molding; an intermediate product formation step of inserting a boring rod 134 from the neck portion side into the barrel portion 23 to form a space pare of at least a predetermined depth in the barrel portion, thereby converting the preform into an intermediate molded product; and a final blow molding step of blow-molding the intermediate molded product within a final blow mold to form a hollow container which is a final molded product.

Disclosed are preforms which incorporate improvements in the region of the neck and upper segment of the body to allow the production of lightweight containers, such as bottles suitable for containing water or other beverages. In accordance with certain embodiments, the improvements include a thinner neck finish area than conventional bottles, where the thinner area is extended into the upper segment of the body portion below the support ring. Reducing the thickness in these areas of the bottle allows for less resin to be used in forming the preform and bottle.