“The Indian paperboard market is growing at 8% per annum,” says Nitin Shah

Nitin Shah of Award Packaging presented key trends in rigid folding carton packaging at the annual general meeting of All India Printing Ink Manufacturers Association (AIPIMA) which was held on 12 September, 2014 in Mumbai.

17 Sep 2014 | By PrintWeek Team



The presentation was kicked off with statistics about the growth of the contribution of countries in the global print market from 2009 to 2013 in which India stands at number nine with a USD 16.3 billion in 2009 to USD 22.8 billion in 2014.


                                        2013

“Globally, there will be a rise in digital from 13% in 2013 to 20% by 2016,” said Shah, explaining the share of each print segment with the help of a bar diagram.

                                         2016

“The demand for Indian paper industry stands at 13.1 million tonnes which is comprised by a major share of paperboard and accounts for 5.9 million tonnes,” added Shah. 

Shah stated that the Indian paperboard market is growing at around 8% per annum and is driven by the value-added coated board, the fastest growing segment at 15% per annum.
 

“More than 80% of the total packaging in India constitutes rigid packaging. The remaining 20% comprises flexible packaging. India’s per capita packaging consumption is less than USD15 kgs against worldwide average of nearly USD100 kgs,” said Shah.

Shah highlighted the trends in packaging namely light-weighting, improved stability and consistency, special signatures, environment and sustainability aspects, regulatory environment, focus on end of life disposal, among others.

Shah elaborated the trend of light weighting by emphasising on the use of virgin grade boards of higher bulk at lower grammage to reduce weight of packaging and resultant emissions savings. He also stated that when comparing recycled to virgin boards, cross direction stiffness is the single most important consideration in substitution as it  accounts for 78% of carton compression strength.

One of the other trends inculcates improved stability and consistency which includes improved stability required for modern processes such as shift to seven-colour printing, spot UV, gold foiling, braille etc. 

Concluding his presentation, Shah shed light on end of life disposal of packaging material with respect to the growing concern of compostability of the packaging product at the end of its life cycle which. He sees this trend flourishing in the near future.

Later, Shah was part of a panel discussion chaired by B S Kampani in which he spoke about his upcoming packaging plant in Silvassa - to be commissioned in early 2015.