According to reports, some domestic canned enterprises have introduced advanced flexible packaging can production lines from the United States, Japan, Italy and other countries; some have also developed various special-shaped cans with easy-open covers. Some canning companies have started to act, and improving packaging is an example.

Which packaging is better, glass packaging, metal packaging, or flexible packaging?

The cost of glass packaging

Glass packaging, which is a common form of current canned packaging. There is a serious crisis in the glass packaging industry in China.

According to statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics on all state-owned and annual non-state-owned enterprises with annual sales of 5 million yuan or more in the glass container industry, China’s total daily glass production in 2002 was 6.44 million tons, an increase of 14% over 1998. The annual growth rate was 3.5%; in 2002, the output of glass thermal insulation containers was 303 million, an increase of 11.8% from 1998, and the average annual growth rate was 2.95%. During this four-year period, the output of the industry is basically in a low-speed growth state. The main reason is that the effective demand is insufficient and the supply structure does not meet the changes in market demand.

The main reason is excess production and increased competition. Constrained by cost factors and national environmental protection policies, industry enterprises in recent years have mainly shifted to areas where energy or raw materials are cheap, labor is cheap, and supporting industries are concentrated. The concentration of industrial production and the scale of production have all expanded. For example, in 1998, there were only about 5 enterprises with an annual output of 10 million tons. At the end of 2002, the number of companies with an annual output of 10 million tons or more in the industry was about 15 companies.

However, in terms of product structure, glass companies have lower grades, lower technological content, and lower artistic content than ordinary products. They still use ordinary bottles and cans. Most companies perform cruelly in markets with low levels and serious surplus of products. competition. The foreign glass products continue to hit China and squeeze the domestic market. According to customs statistics, in 2002, the import growth of the glass packaging container industry was 2.3 times that of exports. From 1999 to 2002, the annual growth rate of exports was 26.4%, and the annual growth rate of imports was 32.6%. The growth of imports was mainly concentrated in 2002, an increase of 79.7% compared with 2001, and the earning capacity of various industries in the industry had varying degrees of decline.

During the same period, the export volume of glass containers of various specifications increased by 16.5%, while the export volume increased by 50.9%, and the growth of export volume was significantly higher than the increase in the amount. In 1999, the average unit price of such products was US$593.9/ton. In 2002, the average unit price of exports was US$458.5/ton, which was a 22.8% drop compared to the price.

As a high-energy-consuming industry, energy costs account for about 40% of total product costs. Changes in energy prices directly affect the overall economic efficiency of the industry. Currently affected by the international situation, the price of heavy oil has risen to around 1,800 yuan/ton, and even higher. The company that only uses heavy oil as its primary energy source has only one energy source, and the cost of tons of glass has increased by more than 100 yuan, which has greatly impacted the industry. Although recycling of glass bottles can be reused, which is conducive to resource conservation and environmental protection, the above problems cannot be solved, which will restrict self-development and affect the canned industry to expand the market.

Metal packaging technology to upgrade

Metal packaging products mainly include aluminum two-piece cans, three-piece tin cans, and canned food cans. Compared to flexible packaging, the technology is relatively mature. Its products have the characteristics of long shelf life, easy carry and collision resistance, and easy to counterfeit (which is also the most important point).

China's metal packaging has reached the level of similar products in advanced countries: two cans have about 25 production lines, annual production capacity of about 11 billion or so; tinplate three-piece can manufacturing equipment has various types of imported and domestic automatic resistance There are more than 500 welding machines and nearly 300 production lines. The products supply approximately 4 billion beverages industry a year, and approximately 3.8 billion canned food products. There are approximately 200 crown cap production lines in the country, and more than 90% of equipment is imported from abroad. , The annual market demand is 35 billion; India iron equipment, iron coating equipment has more than 500 production lines nationwide, imported equipment and domestic equipment, half, printing more than 15 billion times in India; all kinds of bottle cap imported equipment more than 300 sets (sets The annual demand for tinplate in the whole industry is about 1.4 million tons.

With the increase of domestic tinplate production capacity, imports of tinplate will gradually decrease and they will be self-sufficient soon, but some high-end products still need a small amount of imports.

The rapid development of the beer, canned, and beverage industries has brought unlimited opportunities for metal packaging. In 2001 alone, carbonated beverages and other non-nitrogen-enriched beverages totaled 16.8 million tons in 2001, bringing the demand for aluminum two-piece cans to 7 billion and tinplate three-piece beverage cans to 4 billion. The national beer production has reached more than 20 million tons, of which two cans are filled at 4%, and 920,000 tons of beer are required to use 2.5 billion aluminum cans. Some people estimate that the future demand for canned food cans is 4 billion, 44.2 billion bottles of various caps, and 12 billion cans of lids.

Although domestic growth is rapid, there is still a considerable gap compared with foreign countries. According to reports, at present, there are nearly 200 billion tinplate cans and food cans worldwide, more than 200 billion aluminum cans, and about 10 billion aerosol cans. Asian beverage cans and food cans have grown at a rate of 250% in two-piece cans, 63% in three-piece cans, and 71% in food cans.

Taking foreign beverage cans and canned foods as examples, the annual per capita consumption: China's annual per capita consumption of various beverage cans is about 8 cans. Canned food in China is less than 1 kilogram per person per year, while the Japanese average is 23 kilograms, European per capita is 50 kilograms, and the United States is 90 kilograms. Advanced countries have used 0.07 to 0.14mm ultra-thin metal plates (iron, drill) to make food containers that can be heated in microwave ovens.

From the analysis of per capita consumption, there is still a large market space for metal packaging in China. The key to developing the market is to reduce the cost of metal cans. In order to reduce costs, the foreign can industry has generally adopted two methods of reducing the thickness of aluminum plates and improving the shape of cans. The thickness of the aluminum plate material in the US tank factory is reduced by 0.01mm each, which can save about 0.22 US dollars per thousand cans; the easy-open cover neck is reduced from 404 to 401 specifications to save 12.5% ​​of the material; the can neck is reduced from 206 necks to 204, a full set of Saving material consumption by 6.7%, and then reduced to 202 can save 13.6%. These practices can be used for reference by the domestic tank industry.

For canners, once the cost of metal packaging is reduced, and the difficulty of opening up is solved, it will bring about a leap in metal packaging. It is because of the above reasons that some foreign companies have come to China to invest in the metal packaging industry, and domestic metal packaging companies can not lag behind.

Soft-packaging shots when the shot

From the inside of the supermarket, soft canned packaging has already won the favor of some consumers. This type of packaging solves the “common problem” of glass bottles and tin cans - the status quo of “canned food”, and is convenient for consumers to carry. transparency.

As early as the 1990s, after investigations into the international market, edible fungus companies in China discovered that convenient flexible packaging products are favored by consumers. Therefore, the main producing areas of mushrooms and asparagus in China are mushroom companies in Fujian, Shandong and Yunnan. , Breaking through the packaging forms of traditional glass bottles and metal cans, developed flexible packaging products such as mushrooms and asparagus. After only a few years of development, domestic edible mushroom canned leading enterprises have occupied nearly 30% of the canned edible fungi market in Europe and Japan. This is a great solution to solve the problem of deep processing of agricultural products in China, and to increase the added value of the canned industry in China and create its own advantage brand.

But the problem also followed. For manufacturing companies, it is how to reduce packaging costs. Some companies use more than 100,000 flexible packaging bags each year. When the production volume is large, the daily usage amount can reach 3,000. This kind of flexible packaging bags all go from Japan to vi, which is about RMB 8 per unit. If the market is continuously exploited, the production volume of canned soft packaging will inevitably increase. The demand for flexible packaging bags will increase, and the realization of localized procurement of packaging products will be inevitable.

For example, for the production of canned edible fungus companies, they require soft packaging to be able to spray at high temperatures first, because mushroom foods need to be sterilized by high temperature, so the soft packaging used needs to be able to withstand high temperature spray at 120°C. It also needs strong barrier property. At present, Japanese packaging products can make the canned shelf life of more than one year, while the domestic similar products can only maintain the shelf life of products in 8 to 9 months. Transparency is high, so that consumers can directly see the product, which stimulates the desire to buy. Solve the plastic bag's flexibility is not strong, easy to cause the problem of explosion bags.

Is our soft packaging plastic packaging manufacturing company inferior to people? According to some media reports, high-temperature flexible packaging technology does not exist in China. Some companies use multi-layer co-extrusion technology to co-extrude pe with barrier materials to produce products with the same functionality. This product can determine the thickness of the barrier layer according to customer requirements, allowing the product to have a shelf life of 9 to 12 Months. For cpp and pe composite plastic bags, it is possible to increase the flexibility of the product by adding elastomers. Domestic technology can also be satisfied. Some products can withstand high temperatures around 135 °C, fully able to meet the requirements of high temperature spray.

This shows what? This shows that there is no effective communication between China's food canners and food packaging manufacturers. The users' voices cannot be heard promptly. The suppliers' new technology users cannot understand it in a timely manner. This affects, to a certain degree, both packaging companies and user companies. Interests.

In short, the canning industry should apply both "soft and hard" techniques, and neither can abandon traditional "hard packs" nor ignore "soft packs."