Packaging Printing Current Status and Future Trends of the Packaging Printing Industry 2023

In today's society, all commodities require packaging, and all packaging requires printing. Printing is one of the most important decorative processing methods for product packaging. Printing plays a role in conveying information and promoting products. High-quality packaging printing helps attract consumers' attention, convey product quality information, and thus increase product sales.

At the same time, technically complex packaging printing helps consumers distinguish between genuine and counterfeit products, playing an important role in product anti-counterfeiting. Because the role of packaging printing in the process of realizing product value is becoming increasingly important, packaging printing scheme design, packaging material selection, technical routes, equipment selection, etc., have developed into a complex industrial chain, and the scale of the packaging printing market has steadily increased.

I. Packaging Printing Concept

Packaging printing is printing using various packaging materials as carriers. Decorative patterns, designs, or text are printed on the packaging to make the product more attractive or more descriptive, thus conveying information and increasing sales. Packaging printing accounts for a large proportion in both the printing industry and the packaging industry and is an indispensable part of packaging engineering. There are printing methods such as letterpress printing, flat printing, gravure printing, screen printing, and stencil printing. The main elements of printing include paper, ink, and color. Packaging printing needs to consider economic and environmental issues and must be able to fully and effectively express the information that needs to be printed.

Packaging refers to a series of activities involved in designing and producing containers or packaging materials. As a supporting service industry for the national economy, packaging has grown along with the continuous development and growth of China's socialist construction, especially since the reform and opening up. Under the socialist market economic system, the packaging industry has rapidly developed and is forming a modern industrial system mainly composed of paper, plastics, metals, glass, printing, and machinery, with certain modern technologies and equipment and relatively complete categories.

II. Analysis of the Current Status of the Packaging Printing Industry

Compared with their counterparts in European and American countries, China's packaging printing companies have lower product added value, more primary business models, and low industrial concentration. In the future, with the deepening of China's industrial integration and the acceleration of the elimination of backward production capacity, the industry concentration is expected to increase significantly. As a leading domestic provider of integrated packaging solutions, the company has advantages in scale, brand, technology, management, capital, and talent.

With economic development and the continuous rise in social consumer demand, the Chinese packaging printing market will continue to grow steadily. According to the report "China's Packaging Industry "Thirteenth Five-Year" Development Plan", by the end of the "Thirteenth Five-Year" Plan, the global packaging market demand is expected to exceed US$1 trillion, and the annual average growth rate of the packaging industry will reach about 4%. China has become the world's largest packaging consumer market and packaging product producer.

China's packaging industry has taken more than 20 years to complete the development path that developed countries have taken nearly 40 years, basically changing the situation of "first-class products, second-class packaging, and third-class prices." The packaging industry has developed from a scattered and backward industry into a complete industrial system with certain modern technological equipment and relatively complete classifications. The significant characteristics of the development of the packaging industry today are the internationalization of the packaging market, the globalization of the development of the packaging industry, and the increasing interdependence of the development of packaging industries in various countries.

According to the "2023-2028 China Packaging Printing Industry Development Prospect and Investment Risk Prediction Analysis Report" released by Zhongyan Puhua Industry Research Institute:

Packaging printing is printing using various packaging materials as carriers. Decorative patterns, designs, or text are printed on the packaging to make the product more attractive or more descriptive, thus conveying information and increasing sales. According to the packaging materials, the packaging industry can be divided into paper packaging, metal packaging, plastic packaging, glass packaging, and other sub-industries.

Packaging printing needs to consider economic and environmental issues and must be able to fully and effectively express the information that needs to be printed. From the perspective of the industrial chain, the upstream of the packaging printing industry is mainly the raw materials and equipment manufacturing industries such as paper, plastics, inks, and additives, and the downstream connects industries such as cigarettes, electronics, food and beverages, and pharmaceuticals. The packaging industry is a trillion-dollar market, among which the largest paper packaging sub-industry has a market size of nearly 330 billion yuan, and the potential market size of high-end packaging in consumer electronics, cigarettes, wine, cosmetics, food/pharmaceuticals, etc., has reached hundreds of billions of yuan.

Data shows that by the end of 2019, there were 6,688 enterprises in the paper and paper products industry, a decrease of 16 compared to the end of 2018; 1,151 loss-making enterprises, an increase of 110 compared to the end of 2018, with a loss ratio of 17.2%, which has expanded. In 2019, there were 5,663 large-scale enterprises in the printing industry participating in the statistics. Their total operating income was 664.9 billion yuan, with a growth rate of 1.6% compared to 2018. Looking back at history, the growth rate of operating income in the printing industry in 2018 was 5.2%, 6.5% in 2017, 4.5% in 2016, and 7% in 2015. This shows that 2019 was a year of relatively stagnant development in the industry, and the market size growth was limited. From January to April 2020, the paper and paper products industry achieved operating income of 353.98 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 13.5%; the printing and recording media reproduction industry achieved operating income of 168.51 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 13.7%. From January to April, the paper and paper products industry achieved a total profit of 17.37 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.5%; the printing and recording media reproduction industry achieved a total profit of 8.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 21.2%.

The packaging printing industry presents a typical "large industry, small company" pattern. The industry entry barrier is relatively low, there are many small and medium-sized enterprises, the competitive landscape is dispersed, and the overall situation is oversupply, and profitability is declining. The entry barrier for the domestic packaging industry is very low, the proportion of small and medium-sized enterprises is high, exceeding 60%, and the bargaining power with upstream and downstream suppliers is severely insufficient. Many packaging companies have regional characteristics, and market share is relatively concentrated. Even industry leaders have certain market limitations.

III. Future Development Trends of the Packaging Printing Industry

Compared with their counterparts in European and American countries, China's packaging printing industry has lower product added value, more primary business models, and low industrial concentration. In the future, with the deepening of China's industrial integration and the acceleration of the elimination of backward production capacity in the packaging printing industry, the concentration of the packaging printing industry is expected to increase significantly.

Zhongyan Puhua uses various unique information processing technologies to collect, organize, process, analyze, and transmit massive amounts of market data, providing customers with a full range of information solutions and consulting services, minimizing customer investment risks and operating costs, seizing investment opportunities, and improving corporate competitiveness. For more of the latest professional analysis, please click on the "2023-2028 China Packaging Printing Industry Development Prospect and Investment Risk Prediction Analysis Report" of Zhongyan Puhua Industry Research Institute.