North America remains the global leader in the packaging industry right now. Although the North American packaging market faced a brief dip in 2009, the sector has seen steady growth over the past couple of years. However, new packaging industry trends such as the rising need for eco-friendly and sustainable solutions are posing new challenges for companies in the sector. Also, China is poised to become a packaging industry major by 2020, and together with other markets in Asia, it will remain the industry’s top growth engine alongside North America.
While this shift is notable, North America’s relevance in the global packaging market remains substantial due to its size and rate of innovation. The largest end-user segment of the North American packaging sector is food, while the fastest is projected to come from healthcare and cosmetics, closely similar to the global packaging industry trends. This blog provides a packaging industry overview in North America, highlighting the key packaging industry trends that investors and companies can expect to see.
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North American Packaging Industry Trends
Impressive growth in Mexico
Mexico is predicted to have the highest packaging industry growth among the three North American countries. One of the key packaging industry segments that are expected to show positive growth in Mexico is the soft drink beverage packaging that meets the needs of customers seeking both versatility and sophistication from their packaging.
Success of rigid plastic packaging
Packaging industry trends such as rigid plastic packaging are forecasted to show steady growth in the North American packaging market and will experience the highest growth rates across plastics. Furthermore, PE and PET will remain the main plastics used for consumer manufacturing.
Paperboard to lead market share
Paperboard is one of the notable packaging industry trends that suffered a steeper decline than most other packaging materials during the recession, especially in the US. However, it has recovered quickly and returned to pre-crisis levels. In the North American packaging market, paperboard holds the largest share of packaging consumption. Corrugated packaging claims the largest share of the North American paperboard packaging sales.
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Recovery of industrial sectors
The North American economy is greatly affected by uncertainties. This also includes the impact of the European economic crisis and political uncertainty in oil-exporting countries. The US has also been significantly affected by falling real estate values and difficulties in securing financing for future investments. However, the industrial segments have been in recovery since a sharp downturn in demand a decade ago. Real estate values are now also starting to show recovery. The proliferation of several innovative packaging industry trends and growth of the packaging sector can be expected in the next few years.
Retail-ready packaging
Packaging industry trends such as retail-ready packaging provide an attractive structure as well as advertises a product. It refers to packaging in the form of a self-contained unit that is delivered to a retailer and is immediately ready for on-shelf product display without the need for assembling or unpacking. Such packaging industry trends significantly cut down on operation costs as the shipping package is shelf-ready. Retail ready packaging is continuously gaining popularity and traction in North America as a number of retailers consider its implementation and others expand their efforts in the area. This is due to an increased understanding of RRP, and the ever-growing penetration of RRP across categories.
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