A report on the global packaging industry from Pira International forecasts increases and annual growth, mainly due to greater demand for packaging in emerging and transitional economies.
The global packaging industry will increase to almost USD 820 billion by 2016, as forecast by Pira International in The Future of Global Packaging Market and Technology Forecasts to 2016. According to the report, a 3% per annum growth rate will focus on board products and rigid plastics, with USD 40 billion and USD 33 billion in cumulative predicted growth respectively to 2016, pushed mainly by increasing demand for packaging in emerging and transitional economies.
The Future of Global Packaging Market and Technology Forecasts to 2016 provides market sizes and forecasts as per by packaging product, end-use sector and geographic market, in a comprehensive overview of the status of the packaging industry in 50 countries globally, and is based on an in-depth combination of primary and secondary data from the global packaging industry.
This growth is caused by a number of trends such as increasing urbanization, investment in housing and construction, an expanding healthcare sector and the still rapid development in emerging economies, such as China, India, Brazil and some eastern European countries. An increase in personal income in developing regions fuels consumption across a broad range of products, with growth in demand for the packaging of these goods.
According to the Pira, the US was the largest consumer for packaging in 2010 with a demand of USD 137 billion; followed closely by China at USD 80 billion. China is anticipated to surpass the US by 2017, and India will enter the top ten packaging countries with its demand expected to almost double in the next five years to USD 24 billion.
Technological developments in packaging are seeing an upswing in the consumption of bio-polymers in both rigid and flexible applications, improved value adding in products with functional and barrier coatings, as well as enhanced graphics, resource reduction by way of continuous lightweighting across all materials, and other developments.
The consumption of metal packaging represented over 15% of the 2010 market but is expected to lose market share to competing products, reaching only 14% of the 2016 market, while demand for glass containers is also anticipated to slow down over the medium term, but still increasing from some USD 45 billion in 2010 to around USD 53 billion by 2016.
Pira research shows that food and healthcare packaging will continue to be the biggest end uses in global packaging, with the food and drinks industry growing by almost USD 43 billion combined to 2016. Health care packs will grow 4.5% each year to reach a total of USD 34 billion, while cosmetics packaging is expected to grow 4.2% per year, reaching USD 24 billion.