Int’l Packaging News for China

Since 1980, China’s packaging industry, comprising over 11,000 large-scale packaging companies, has been growing at an average rate over 17%. The sector registered a production value of US$36.5 billion in 2004 and is expected to continue growth at an annual rate of 8.2% to reach around US$51 billion by 2009. The country is also world’s fourth largest importer of packaging machinery.

Package printing has witnessed similar pace of expansion. In 2004, there were 31,000 companies that specialized in printing on packaging totaling revenue of US$11 billion. Meanwhile, paper and film converters have been progressing so rapidly that China’s paper and paperboard industry now ranks second in the world with production of 48.62 million tons in 2004. Film converters are proud of their BOPP film that is catching most of the attention with an annual output of 1.3 million tons.