China Corrugated Industry

In China there are about 3000 corrugated machine. In 1990s mostly only of a 1.4 to 1.6 m width and speed of about 60 – 80 mpm, but by end 1990s the new investment are machine with width of 2 m and speed about 150 mpm. The Europe corru¬gated machine mainly installed in South China as the Hong Kong enterprise which move to this area for the lower labor cost want to make sure that they still in the high quality level on the packaging market with these sophisticated equipments.

There are 3 main area in China on corrugated : South China or famous as Pearl River Delta which consist of Guang¬dong, Guangzi, Hainan, Hubei, Hunan and Fujian. The 2nd one is East China or famous as Yangtze River covers Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui. The 3rd one is North China included the capital area Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and Shandong.

More than half of corrugated boxes is for export oriented, though now with the economic development and in¬crease consumer spending especially in the urban area the local potential is very bright. There are variant quality of production the low cost machi¬ne is not efficient at all, but can not be easily replace or shut down as mostly belong to the municipal city. While the light weight is surprisingly has market share almost 10% especially the G flute which impressed Chinese market with it printability quality. As there is not so much good quality liner board, the import of liner board in a year can reach as high as 1 million tons.

The total output value in the packaging industry has been significantly increased from RMB 7.2 billions in 1980 to RMB 270 billions. Today, China is of the biggest packaging country in the ASIA.

China Packaging Technology Association joined into ACCA, in 2002 and currently, the growth rate of the total output in corrugated carton, China ranks first of the world, with the total output ranking No. 1 in Asia. China has the most advance processing equipment in the world; and also owns the huge market potentiality, Because China is an open market, the international enterprises are welcome for investment, economic growth in Asian 6.5%, foreign investment in Asia $30 billions, 60% of China’s total absorbed investment.

For many years, China is always engaged in pushing the process of the economic integration for Asia, and later on, China will keep on attending and pushing the cooperation of regional economy with its positive attitude. In package industry, we will move fast to study, communicate and cooperate with the same industry in Asian countries. Ladies and gentlemen, the business chance is staying together with the challenge, I believe: through our sincere cooperation and common endeavor, we can create a bright future for the corrugated industry of Asia.

(Mr. SHI : Member of standing committee, CPPCC Deputy Director of the economic committee, CPPCC President of China Packaging Technology Association)