Films offer a number of different benefits for the products that they contain. Their flexibility makes it easy to package goods of varying shapes and sizes and, depending on the product, can keep unwanted contaminants out.
There are a number of industries in which these films can be used. Many customers will see them on grocery store shelves, keeping goods like fruit or meat fresh, however, they can be used in a number of other settings. Wrapping films can be used to package pallets for more industrial operations and to bundle multiple goods into a single unit to ship to distributors.
A new report indicates that the packaging film market is predicted to grow in the coming years, as demands to improve shelf-life of foods play a major role in the future of the sector.
Market expected to grow
The versatility of this packaging solution could be a major reason why the industry is expected to grow in the coming months. A recent report from Markets and Markets indicates that the value of these films will expand at a compound annual growth rate of 5.8 percent between 2013 and 2018, building from its value of $89.2 billion in 2012.
Packaging film market expected to grow through 2018Consumption of the packaging product is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.5 percent during that time. The major industries that tend to use these products the most are food and beverage, along with pharmaceutical and medical packaging. Asia-Pacific is the major market for these kinds of films with about 35 percent of the market share during 2012, though North America and Europe also played major roles, with shares of 25.3 percent and 24.1 percent, respectively.
Polyethylene was the major raw material in the industry, making up about 64 percent of the total raw materials during 2012.
Industrial packaging growing
Packaging film has a number of different uses in the economic sector. Packaging Digest reported that one of the major recovering markets in North America is industry. Growth rates for industrial packaging are expected to increase by 1.2 percent each year through 2017, bringing the value of market to $62.5 billion by 2017.
There a number of ways that packaging films could be utilized within the industry. Stretch wrapping is a particularly common one due to its ability to be applied to a number of different forms of packaging. For instance, stretch wrapping is a very popular and cost effective way to bundle numerous goods within a warehouse, however, depending on how the process is conducted, it could be greatly improved.
Automated packaging machines are a great way for companies to speed up these processes. Manual labor can wrap pallets to a satisfactory degree, but consistency can sometimes suffer. Too much or too little material can sometimes be used. This can lead to materials expenses or sacrifices in product quality. By using a pallet wrapping machine, the speed at which packaging occurs improves while ensuring that the product will be wrapped properly each time.
