Analysis of the Electric Drives Market in the North American Packaging Industry

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Report Excerpt

Plastics

Continued growth is forecast for plastics used to package goods. As glass and metal packaging applications transition to plastics, and as plastic continues to be an abundant and viable material, its use will continue to grow.

More than one-third (xx.x percent) of all the goods packaged in North America are packaged using plastics. Plastics offers end users a light-weight, easy-to-handle, flexible, functional material.

One emerging trend within the plastics packaging industry is bioplastics, which are biodegradable plastics. Bioplastics are made from renewable raw materials, and their decomposition when exposed to the outdoors takes from weeks to months, as opposed to years.

Paper and Board

Paper and board-based packaging is forecast to remain steady, losing little of its xx.x percent market share in the long term. Paper and board are more robust than glass, are lighter than metal, and are far less ecologically damaging than plastics. Another advantage of paper-based packaging is that it is obtained from renewable resources that are sustainably grown and harvested for this purpose.

A key trend in paper and board packaging is that there will be a growing number of companies utilizing paper and board as the preferred packaging material of choice. The more robust these types of material become, the more versatile end users can be with their innovative ideas in packaging solutions. Some end users are now testing water-based coatings on the inside of containers, allowing for increased performance and functionality, while providing a platform for paper and board to compete in some areas with plastics.

Metal

Metal is forecast to retain most of its market share through the end of the forecast period. There will be a slight decline in the market share for metal as heavy-duty plastics replace some of the need for storage and for safe, consumable-goods transport in the long-term, but it is not expected to be a substantial drop.

Metal-based packaging accounts for approximately xx.x percent of the material used to package goods in North America, supporting its growing annual consumption of beverage cans, aerosol cans, and durable steel containers. With the current economic challenges causing people to spend more of their time at home, sales for beverage cans, canned foods, and beauty products are expected to keep increasing as the economy stabilizes.

Glass

The glass-based packaging industry is forecast to remain in a slight decline through 2017. Glass is the heaviest packaging material, just behind metal, and is labor intensive to manufacture and recycle. Glass-based packaging accounts for approximately xx.x percent of packaging materials used in North America.

Light weighting is a trend where glass is made to be considerably lighter yet more durable. This is achieved during the glass forming process, where areas that are typically thick are made thinner, and areas that are thin are reinforced. Lightweighting results in glass bottles that are significantly lighter than the bottles from just xx years ago. This trend’s other benefits are that the glass container is easier and cheaper to produce, maneuver, package and transport.