Corrugated Packaging on a Fast Track: Nearly 14% Growth to 2027 and How the Industry Will Upgrade and Pivot

When it comes to the largest packaging market, corrugated packaging clearly leads the way. In e-commerce in particular, it is expanding at a remarkable pace and is projected to grow by almost 14% between now and 2027.

A quick look at corrugated boxes

Corrugated board is converted into corrugated boxes through die-cutting, creasing, stitching or gluing. Corrugated boxes are the most widely used packaging product, with consumption consistently ranking first among all packaging categories, including calcium-plastic corrugated boxes. For over half a century, their strong performance in use and excellent processing characteristics have helped them gradually replace wooden boxes and other transport containers, making them the workhorse of transport packaging. Beyond protecting goods and supporting warehousing and transport, they also help enhance and promote products.

Corrugated boxes are considered green, eco-friendly products. They are environmentally beneficial, easy to handle and transport, and offer lightweight design, recyclability and easy degradation. Corrugated packaging machinery includes high-speed wide-width corrugated board production lines, smart water-based printing, digital printing, and full-scenario smart engineering solutions.

The development of corrugated packaging can be divided into four stages. After the national packaging industry management body was established in 1980, the number of corrugated packaging companies gradually rose, marking the initial stage. In the 1990s, as more companies entered, each leveraged its own strengths to capture market share, and the industry entered a wild-growth phase. In the early 21st century, firms began to focus more on management and business models; competition became fiercer and more complex, ushering in rapid growth. After 2011, companies with outdated capacity were eliminated, leading players started exploring new directions and expanding their advantages and market share, industry concentration increased further, and the sector moved into a steady-development stage.

In recent years, a variety of new corrugated boxes and new corrugated board structural components have continued to emerge. Traditionally, corrugated board has mainly been used for cartons and boxes. However, as a deeper development of corrugated board applications in packaging, new corrugated boxes will create immense opportunities for the corrugated carton industry. For carton manufacturers, as flute profiles become finer, market opportunities broaden.

Consumption upgrading: corrugated carton products move toward the mid-to-high-end segment

Driven by consumption upgrading, carton products are gradually advancing toward the mid-to-high-end segment, shifting from simple packaging to consumer packaging.

The shift is mainly seen in:

a) Stronger demand for outer packaging support: low-grammage, high-strength and lightweight corrugated board has become a common requirement;

b) Higher requirements for packaging printing: beyond functional roles such as storage and transport, protection, moisture resistance and compression resistance, demand is rising for value-added roles in product display, brand reinforcement and consumer guidance.

Business model shift: corrugated carton companies move from manufacturers to packaging solution providers

At present, most corrugated carton enterprises in China act as "producers," handling only the processing and production of design schemes and operating on relatively thin margins.

The future shift toward packaging solution providers: a packaging solution provider serves customers across the entire chain, from packaging design, customization and production to distribution and after-sales. It starts with packaging appearance and style design, shortens the customer's product design cycle, and customizes the best and most economical overall solution for the product. It then provides follow-up production and distribution based on customer orders, maintains close after-sales contact, and responds to feedback with timely services. International packaging giants such as International Paper and WestRock have long since moved from packaging product manufacturers to packaging solution providers. Leading companies in China's corrugated carton industry are also moving in this direction.

Smart manufacturing: building "Internet + packaging" intelligence and platformization

Future high-quality packaging enterprises in the industry will integrate internal and external resources and establish production, logistics and information platforms. They will integrate the entire process of customer packaging products, from circulation and storage through to production support, and provide comprehensive, one-stop solutions for all packaging material needs at each stage. This reduces customers' overall packaging and logistics costs, adds profit growth points, and builds long-term, mutually trusting relationships with customers.

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-379406.html