Day Two: ICCMA Congress 2015

Panel discussion on ‘SWOT-Industries Perspective’

Kirit Modi, president, Indian Corrugated Case Manufacturers Association (ICCMA), moderated the discussion and talked about the internal and external factors of the corrugated industry that are the strengths and opportunities, considered to be as an internal factors, which we have some measure of control, whereas, weaknesses and threats are considered to be as external factors on which, we have no control.

 

Taking the discussion ahead to the next panellist Ashish Khemka, director, Khemka Containers, said, “The corrugated box, highly customisable, and they work as branding and marketing tool as well, they have high strength to weight ratio, they are cost-effective, protective with cushioning qualities, fast turn around time and are eco-friendly material, which can be recycled up to seven times and these all serves as the strength to the industry.”

 

Further speaking about the weaknesses of the industry, Mihir Shah of Aryan Paper Mills, said, "The technology awareness to the customers and the unfair competition of automated plant against manual ones are the poor talent pool. Industry focus on high price and credit instead of focusing on quality are some of the challenges."

 

The next in the list was Ramkumar Sunkara of SS Consultancy, shared about the opportunities available in the industry and showed figures on the industrial paper production which is about 58.1% of total production and kraft paper constitutes 31.3% of total paper production in India. The Indian pulp and paper industry recorded a constant average annual growth rate of 5.4% over the past three years.

 

The output of Indian paper industry was about 5.4 million tonnes in the year 2003 and paper consumption was about 5.5 kgs per capita in 2003 as against the world average of 50 kgs. Demand for paper is directly related to economic  development, at 10% GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth rate, projected demand for the paper by 2021 set to reach 35, 508, 000 tons, whereas for kraft papers the projected demand set to reach 11.86 millions tons.

 

Sunkara, said, "According to the study of Smithers Pira, the global packaging industry is to grow to by $ 820 billion by 2016, and the Indian packaging industry is growing at the rate of 18% annually."

 

Sunkara added, "As per Boston Consulting Group, the market size for food in India, which was Rs 23 lakh crore in 2014, is set to reach Rs 42 lakh crore by 2020, and as the majority of food industry caters to flexible packaging, and there will be a huge growth in flexible packaging market and it will directly influence cartons production, used for shipping purpose.

 

Thereafter, Rajesh Bhugra, Supra Kraft concluded, "The people in India find it easier to carry packs in bags than boxes, which is one of the major concern as carry bags are basically driven by textile industries. And unlike, metal container, the corrugated container used once for shipping can’t be used again, due to its low structural rigidity.

 

Panel discussion on ‘Stakeholders’ Perspective – Paper mills, paper dealers and end customers’

Initiating the discussion Gautam Shah of Shree Ajit Paper Mills, said, “Every company has weaknesses and threats, but it's up to them how they convert that threats into opportunities and weaknesses into strengths.”

 

Ajay Kwatra of Sharvi Traders, said, "In my views there is no threat to this industry, we just need to communicate with the suppliers or to mills about what quality to have and what quality we require."

 

Amit Agarwal of HMK Autopack, said, "We are not able to take advantage of the technology because of the high investments required for the plant automation."

 

Today around 275 box makers with continuous corrugated line produce an output of 40% (Two million MT), whereas 12,000-14,000 box makers with semi-automatic litho-lam type board making produce the output of 60% (2.7 million MT).

 

Later on, Barun Banerjee of Nestle India shared about the future aspect and said, "The self-ready packing case is going to be the modern technology and we need to look end to end handling in order to avoid transportation damage."

 

“We should work together to develop specification rather than spending energy to design own specifications. Vendor Manage Inventory (VMI) is something Nestle India going to take into account for shipping,” added Banerjee.

 

Panel discussion on ‘Buyer Seller Meet – Mills and end customers’

Harish Madan, the moderator, initiated the conversation by saying, "We need to maintain consistency in raw material supply to give a quality product to the customer."

 

To help industrialist better understand the business potential of corrugated industry Sanjay Chhajed of Pack in India, said, “Corrugated industry is the one, which is growing to grow in service as well as e-commerce because the corrugated boxes can be recycled at any point of destination.”

 

Taking the discussion ahead Milin Dey of Madan Packaging, said, “We need to do more to less, but we are not ready for less, this mindset of Indian industry should need to change as the market here is price sensitive and sometimes deals breaks even due to few rupees margins."

 

Ashok Gupta of Devpriya Industries panellist said, "The paper industry has changed a lot in the last eight years in terms of automation in plants and quality."

 

“There should be a benchmark for customer price expectations,” said, Kailash Agarwal of Genus Paper Mills.

 

Rakesh Tripathi of WestRock concluded, "The total cost of ownership (TCO) concept in corrugation is more than just cost per kg of raw materials and conversions."

 

“It is a shared responsibility to ensure product safety and integrity, most efficiently,” added Tripathi.