CHINA – The Chinese corrugated packaging sector, experienced a massive rise in production values last year with output values in 2008 reaching US$38 billion (RMB264 billion), with board consumption estimated to be in the region of 25 million tons
Despite the credit crunch that has crippled world trade, overall packaging output in China was valued at US$125 billion (RMB860 billion), driven by the lower cost structures that have been steadily drawing manufacturing and production across all industries to the Mainland. Global manufacturing is expected to continue this trend towards China, and Asia in general, over the next few years as the West continues to struggle with their weakened economies and higher costs, demand for corrugated cartons for transport packaging will continue to grow.
Geographically and economically China is divided into three key production regions comprising several provinces resulting in high concentrations of corrugated packaging production:
- The Pearl River Delta region (Guangdong, Fujian) with a total annual corrugated carton production capacity of 550-600 million tons;
- Yangtze River Delta, (Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui) – total annual corrugated production capacity of 550 million tons;
- Bohai Sea Area (Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, and Shandong) – annual production capacity that reaches 500 million tons.