Some of the largest suppliers of packaging materials, at the same time, are processors of packaging materials, and their scale is growing. In the face of increasing raw material prices and increasing environmental protection costs, how does the packaging and processing industry pursue the best production efficiency and the best cost-effectiveness?
Flexible packaging films, composites, paper, aluminum foil, boxes, large bags, and labels were initially made in the form of coils. Afterwards, the processor performed printing, covering, coating, laminating, cutting/slitting, forming, and folding processes on the above to increase the value of the material. The ultimate goal is to produce high-quality packaging materials that can be run on high-speed packaging machinery to attract buyers. In addition, it is possible to maintain the desired output while raw material prices increase and environmental protection costs increase.
This is a promising business. Some of the world's largest suppliers of packaging materials, because they are also the processors of packaging materials, are growing in size. In the past few years, we have witnessed the processing companies accelerating the pace of mergers and acquisitions because they want to be able to keep up with market expectations.
The latest example is the acquisition of Sidlaw by Danisco and the merger of ALGroup (including Lawson Mardon) with Alcan and Pechincy in the aluminum processing and packaging sector. This merger makes APA the world’s leading pharmaceutical, personal care, cosmetics and food products. Suppliers of flexible packaging market.
In fact, the top four of the three are packaging material processors, and the processors use more presses than any other printing path.
Flexible printing is the fastest growing technology. At present, sales in the European market are estimated at 44 billion U.S. dollars and are growing at a rate of 6% per year.
The largest market share to date has been in the packaging industry: flexible packaging, printing before corrugated packaging and post-package printing, paper bags, plastic bags, labels, liquid packaging and folding cartons. Of the total 64.7 billion square meters of European market in 1996, 53.4 billion square meters were in the processing industry.
Last year, there were some large-scale investment projects in flexible printing. For example, Lawson Mardon decided to build and equip specialized flexo printing plants in Salter-beck. The main driving forces for this decision came from cost pressures, lower profits, and continuous guarantees. The need to invest in producing quality products. This is part of the company’s investment of 29 million pounds in the lake district over the past three years, of which the Fischer & Krecke 34 KF/8 CNC press has been ranked first in the flexographic press for packaging film, which is the core equipment for this new printing plant. In a specially designed 3,000-square-meter workshop, there is also a customized Polytype co-extrusion laminator, a W&H Starflex standard winder, an 8-color group satellite flexible press, a press cut slitter, and a rewinder. A well-designed automatic loading and unloading system. F&K's 8-ink station satellite press has a maximum width of 1750mm. From a specification point of view, it is more like a corrugated cardboard prepress press than a flexible packaging press, and it is very fast. Its next-generation Polytech extrusion laminator is the first of its kind installed in the UK and can handle a wide range of offset materials and metal composite films.