The newest folding carton packaging technologies, the latest industry developments and the most effective exchange and promotion platform, SinoFoldingCarton 2015 will be held from September 16 to 18, 2015, in Dongguan, China.
Among the various forms of paper packaging, folding carton is a mature packaging market segment that has seen fast growth. Folding carton products are extensively used to package tobacco, food, pharmaceuticals and daily-use chemicals, among other everyday products. Demand for folding carton continues to rise. In the last 10 years, global use of folding carton has risen by 3% to 6% a year. This growth is reflected in the China market too.
In recent years, due to state policies and the gradual downturn of the economy, China’s folding carton market has suffered unprecedented challenges. The official implementation of the New Labor Law means that labor cost will rise by over 30% – a heavy blow for labor-intensive industries. As a result, much of China’s manufacturing industry has been forced to migrate and many international companies have relocated factories to Vietnam, India and other countries where laborcosts are lower. This presents a big challenge for China’s folding carton manufacturing industry.
In addition, with the Chinese government’s introduction of the “eight regulations” against corruption and extravagance in 2013, demand for high-end folding carton has fallen drastically, suppressing part of the high-end folding carton market. The demand for high-end packaging has shifted to regular packaging, leading to fiercer competition in the regular packaging market. Take a Shenzhen factory that produces liquor packaging, for example, high-end liquor packaging used to account for at least 50% of orders received. Today however, orders for high-grade packaging have plummeted and companies have had to modify their product mix. Under these circumstances, the capacity of high-end packaging market has fallen and aggravated competition in the regular packaging market. This has gradually intensified homogeneous competition between packaging and printing plants. Many printing plants have had to lower labor costs to win orders.
In the context of such intense competition, folding carton producers have begun to lower comprehensive costs and improve production efficiency. The effective approach is to expand investment to introduce automated equipment, in a bid to reduce the amount of manual labor, improve equipment safety, enhance production efficiency, reduce scrap rates and lower consumption. A bag-making company used to produce a maximum of 20,000 bags a day, using a high number of workers. Now, thanks to a new automated roll-feeding bag-making machine, which can produce over 150,000 paper bags per day, that volume has skyrocketed. At the same time, the number of workers has largely fallen, proving that automation is a good way to enhance efficiency.
In view of gradually changinguser demand and the ever-changing market, folding carton manufacturers have come up with effective reform measures, including, for example, modulation conformity of equipment functions, enhancement of equipment cost performance, diversification of functions and customized making of equipment for users according to specific needs. With product innovation core to competitiveness, companies have continued to improve products and enrich product lines. To meet specific needs of customers at every level has become the developmental goal of equipment manufacturers.
Apart from efficiency and automation, going green is currently a mega trend in the folding carton equipment industry. While the notion of environment protection is widely accepted in China, local companies have yet to attach enough importance to this concept, likely due to the pressure of costs or because they lag behind their foreign counterparts in their thinking on this matter. Folding cartonprinting enterprises must accelerate their adoption of environmentally sensitive practices, to keep pacewith this trend in the future. There is a real opportunity to become a trend setter and industry leader by doing so.
The folding carton manufacturing market is currently showing signs of stabilizing – recovering after a downturn. Visitors to SinoFoldingCarton 2014 proved that recovery was evident in the European and American markets, whose purchasing power has risen. While mostly retaining a ‘wait-and-see’ attitude, some local enterprises have begun to respond to this shift.
Against this backdrop, SinoFoldingCarton 2015 will be a leading trade platform specializing in showcasing folding carton post-press equipment, as well as related supplies, technologies and services. It will bring together over 300 enterprises, including suppliers of well-known domestic and foreign brands of post-press equipment suppliers.
There will be three new exhibition areas dedicated to printing ink supplies, packaging paper and digital printing/packaging testing. These new additions will further elevate SinoFoldingCarton’s status asone of the most remarkable eventsin the folding carton packaging industry.
SinoFoldingCarton 2015 will be held from September 16 to September 18 in Guangdong Modern International Exhibition Center, Houjie, Dongguan. The recovery of the global economy is set to drive a revival. The packaging printing industry will undoubtedly be one of the first industries to feel the effect. As one of the largest packaging printing industry bases in China, the recovery of the packaging printing industry is expected to be clearly evident in Guangdong because of huge demand for equipment renewal and plant expansion.
SinoFoldingCarton 2015 is a major post-press finishing exhibition based in South China, with influence that extends across Asia-Pacific. The exhibition area span 25,000 sqm, with over 300 enterprises showcasing 600+ units of high-end, highcost-performance folding carton post-press equipment and technologies, as well as more than 800 supplies.
Focus will be on the cutting-edge information and technologies of paper packaging products to provide high quality solutions to lower energy consumption and make post-press finishing production more efficient. It will be an international trade platform that enables folding carton producers to improve purchasing efficiency, save investment costs and get updates on technology developments.
Many well-known domestic and foreign brands will share the SinoFoldingCarton stage,featuring large varieties of products. Folding carton exhibitors will include Bobst, Eterna, Wenquan, Dongke andHongjing; hard box equipment exhibitors (FuchiShiko, Dongguan Hongming, Zhengrun, Zhongke, Keqiang andXinwei) and bag-making equipment exhibitors (Newport, Zenbo andKoro). The participation of so many suppliers is a stark indication of the strong impression and value delivered by previous editions of SinoFoldingCarton. It also illustratessuppliers’ highexpectations for SinoFoldingCarton 2015.
