Future Global Packaging Growth Report Released

Global packaging growth will rise to $820bn over the next four years, with emerging markets fuelling the increase, Pira International has predicted.

The company's Future of Global Packaging Market and Technology study describes how metal and glass packaging will exhibit only limited growth but rigid, flexible and corrugated packaging will be hot commodities - the demand for them increasing in line with heightened convenience and perishable food demand.

Food and drink packaging demand will surge in Brazil, Russian, India and China in particular between now and 2016, with a $40bn growth suggested.

Global Packaging Growth

Pira's global packaging growth report illustrates the present-day scenario, to emphasis events yet to come. Its data shows that the US consumed more packaging than any other nation in 2010, with $137bn in demand. China, in second place, demanded $80 billion and is set to overtake the US during the coming five years.

India's packaging demand, meanwhile, is on course to increase twofold within the same timeframe and, if that happens, it will become a member of the global top ten.

Sector-wise, the packaging market is dominated by board products, valued at $210bn one year ago and set to be worth an additional $40bn in 2016. Next comes rigid plastic - $144bn in 2010, rising to beyond $200bn in 2016 - followed by flexible packaging material.

Future Packaging Report

Pira highlights in its future packaging report the hi-tech nature of modern-day packaging design, with biopolymers to feature more prominently both in flexible and rigid packaging types, it says.

‘This growth is being driven by a number of broad trends such as growing urbanisation, investment in housing and construction, a burgeoning healthcare sector and the rapid development still evident in the emerging economies, including China, India, Brazil and some eastern European countries', Pira reports. ‘An increase in personal disposable income in the developing regions fuels consumption across a broad range of products, with consequential growth in demand for the packaging of these goods.'

In related news, in September last year, the Consumer Goods Forum released a new report on global packaging sustainability, highlighting issues related to the design, use and disposal of packaging that can lower the industry's impact on the environment.

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