South East Asia Corrugated Packaging Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The Southeast Asian Corrugated Packaging Market is expected to register a CAGR of approximately 4% during the forecast period (2021 - 2026). According to International Corrugated Case Associations, the Asia-Pacific region represents the most significant and fastest-growing corrugated packaging market globally, accounting for 53.7% of production and shipments in 2018. The southeast Asian countries, such as Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines, contributing to more than 30% of corrugated packaging.

Key Highlights

• The reason for accelerated growth of the corrugated packaging market in the South East Asian region is an increase in environmental awareness by urban populations, demand for sustainable packaging, demand for convenient packaging (offset by new restrictions on single-use in some countries), growing E-commerce market, rise in the need for electronic goods and home and personal care products along with economic development and increasing per capita income.
• Furthermore, e-commerce firms have benefited from additional savings by using corrugated board-based packaging. According to a study, the corrugated board can achieve savings from 7% - 36%. This depends on the box size and can manufacture boxes with a 30% greater stacking strength and crush resistance while using lighter-weight materials for the bottom panel of the box.
• Moreover, the rising penetration of the E-commerce sector in the South East Asian countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, and Singapore, is paving the way for corrugated packaging in the region. For instance, according to CLSA, the number of online shoppers in Indonesia will increase from 20 million in 2017 to 65 million in 2021.
• With the outbreak of COVID-19, the demand for corrugated board packaging in the region is witnessing significant growth due to transport packaging flowing of essentials products such as packaging for food and other consumer products, medical and pharmaceutical products, tissue and hygiene products.
• But the Covid-19 has postponed many financial and non-financial related activities of the Corrugated packaging firms in the region. For instance, Thailand’s SCG Packaging has postponed its USD 1 billion initial public offerings (IPO) due to the coronavirus Covid-19 outbreak rattling global financial markets.

Key Market Trends

Food and Beverage Industry Expected to Gain Maximum Traction

• The increasing demand for convenience and packaged foods, owing to urbanization, the busy lifestyle of people, and the gradual inclination towards healthy food and lifestyle. The increasing population is also driving the demand for processed food, which is convenient as well as healthy.
• Also, the fast-paced, fresh produce sector needs to keep up with the emerging market trends and industry regulations while ensuring that costs are kept at a minimum and productivity remains high. Corrugated packaging helps the market players to effectively use these packaging solutions for price-effective packaging needs as well as to cater to sustainability goals.
• Corrugated packaging helps to keep moisture away from food items while keeping them safe during long shipping and transit times. Hence, corrugated packaging is increasingly being adopted by food processing companies to offer hygienic packaged foods to customers, especially as a means of secondary or tertiary packaging.
• Corrugated board packaging for beverages serves very different purposes. Sometimes the packaging is used to protect heavy bottles from breaking, while sometimes freshness is the main objective. In some cases, it may be simply used as a barrier to protect from sunlight exposure. Corrugated boxes cost-effective feature has driven its adoption as the price pressures are forcing the brand owners aware of wastages, to streamline their expensive primary packaging.
• Countries like Thailand houses around 9,000 food processing companies. The country is a main producer and exporter of several processed foods, such as canned tuna, frozen seafood, shrimps, and chicken. Corrugated and paperboard are the most commonly used carton packaging types in the beverage segment. Due to the small size of goods, folding carton accounts for the majority of the share in comparison with corrugated packaging as the primary packaging material.

Indonesia Expected to Dominate the Market

• Indonesia is expected to dominate the Southeast Asian Corrugated Packaging Market owing to the increased adoption of corrugated packaging solutions in the country. The market players in the region are also developing new products and indulging in merger and acquisition activities to expand their footprints in the corrugated packaging market. For instance, in May 2019, SCG has purchased a majority stake in Indonesian paper packaging firm Fajar Surya Wisesa for around USD 665 million.
• The acquisition of Fajar will allow SCG to enhance its ASEAN growth platform, especially in Indonesia, that provides a tremendous future growth opportunity for SCG Packaging. Recently installed capacity of 1,300,000 metric tons per year of Kraft Liner Board and Corrugated Medium Paper for carton-box packaging and Coated Duplex Board for display packaging by FajarPaper, is further expected to boost the company’s corrugated packaging capacity in the region.
• Also, in February 2020, SCG Packaging has allocated 7.6 billion baht in its 2020 budget to expand manufacturing in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Indonesian operations have been given 1.8 billion baht to expand the capacity of container boards to 400,000 tonnes per year.

Competitive Landscape

The competitive landscape of the Southeast Asian Corrugated Packaging Market is moderately fragmented owing to the presence of several regional market players in the region. Also, the market players are forming strategic partnerships and collaborations to boost their market presence in the region.

• February 2020 - Tofusan, a startup, launched its first premium organic UHT soymilk in original flavor and low sugar varieties in combiblocMini aseptic carton packs from SIG. Tofusan opted for combiblocMini aseptic carton packs and flexible filling technology from SIG for its first organic UHT soymilk range.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support