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Four trends driving corrugated packaging growth

The environment, lightweighting vs. heavyweighting, Internet shopping, and printing are identified as the four top trends driving the rapid growth of the corrugated packaging industry.

Pw 61746 Corrugated Liner

The corrugated segment of the packaging industry is growing rapidly. Demand for corrugated packaging material is expected to increase by an average of more than 4% annually over the next five years, and will amount to almost 115 million tonnes of converted material worth an estimated $176 billion by 2019. That’s according to a new report from Smithers Pira that examines the top four trends in the corrugated packaging sector. 

1. Environmental issues
The development of innovative designs and reductions in paper grammages are being driven by increasingly demanding environmental and sustainability requirements. Producers are making significant investments in environmental protection and energy optimization programmes, such as the high-pressure boilers installed by Andritz at Mondi Group’s Swiece, Poland, Ruzomberok, Slovakia, and Frantschah, Austria, plants, in addition to other activities aimed at reducing water consumption and improving logistics and transportation.

Contrary to public perception, it is probably true to say that most environmental and sustainability investments and initiatives are driven by the need to improve efficiencies and reduce costs, with the resulting good PR simply being a positive spin-off for the marketing team.

2. Lightweighting vs. heavyweighting
Average substance weights continue to show reductions as producers look to improve yields as far as possible. This is driven by the need to reduce overall packaging weight and reduce transport costs. Much of the new capacity being brought into the market is focused on lightweight containerboards of 70-160gsm, especially in the new Chinese machines.

The majority of lightweight boards are being used in Western Europe, where finished board weights have been reduced by an average of 5gsm from 2009 to 2012, according to data from FEFCO, the European Corrugated Packaging Association. An increase in demand for heavyweight boards has seen the average for Eastern Europe increase by 3gsm over the same period.

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