It is reported that some canning enterprises in China have successively introduced advanced flexible packaging canning production lines from the United States, Japan, Italy and other countries, and some have also developed various special-shaped cans for easy opening. Some canning enterprises are starting to act. Improving packaging is an example.

 

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

 

The cost of glass packaging

 

Glass packaging is also a common form of canned packaging. There is a serious crisis in China's glass packaging industry.

 

According to the statistics of all state-owned and non-state-owned enterprises with annual sales of 5 million yuan or more in glass container industry by the State Statistical Bureau, the total output of domestic glass in 2002 was 6.44 million tons, an increase of 14% over 1998 and an average annual growth rate of 3.5%; the output of glass insulating vessels in 2002 was 303 million, an increase of 11.8% over 1998. The average annual growth rate is 2.95%. In these four years, the output of the industry is basically in a low-speed growth state, mainly due to insufficient effective demand and supply structure to adapt to changes in market demand.

 

This is mainly due to overproduction and intensified competition. Restricted by cost factors and national environmental protection policies, industrial 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 enterprise production have expanded. For example, in 1998, there were only about 5 enterprises with annual output of 100,000 tons, while at the end of 2002, there were about 15 enterprises with annual output of over 100,000 tons.

 

However, in terms of product structure, compared with foreign countries, glass enterprises have low product grade, low technical content and low artistic content. They are still dominated by ordinary bottles and cans. Most of them compete cruelly in the market with low level and serious excess of products. And foreign glass products continue to beat China, squeezing the domestic market. According to customs statistics, the import of glass packaging container industry increased by 2.3 times in 2002. From 1999 to 2002, the annual growth rate of exports was 26.4%, the annual growth rate of imports was 32.6%. The growth of imports was mainly concentrated in 2002, which was 79.7% higher than that in 2001. The foreign exchange earning ability of enterprises in the industry declined to varying degrees.

 

During the same period, the export value of glass containers of various specifications increased by 16.5%, while the export volume increased by 50.9%. The increase in the export volume was significantly higher than the increase in the amount of glass containers. In 1999, the average unit price of such products was 593.9 US dollars per ton, and in 2002, the average unit price was 458.5 US dollars per ton, a 22.8% decrease compared with the corresponding price.

 

As a high energy-consuming industry, energy costs account for about 40% of the total cost of products, and the change of energy prices directly affects the overall economic benefits of the industry. At present, influenced by the international situation, the price of heavy oil has risen to about 1,800 yuan per ton, or even higher. The cost of glass per ton will increase by more than 100 yuan for the enterprises which mainly use heavy oil as energy. Although glass bottles can be recycled and reused, which is conducive to saving resources and environmental protection, but the above problems can not be solved, will restrict their own development, but also affect the canning industry to expand the market.

 

Metal packaging technology to upgrade

 

Metal packaging products mainly include aluminum two-piece cans, tinplate three-piece beverage cans, canned food cans and so on. Compared with soft packaging, the technology is relatively mature. Its products have the characteristics of long shelf life, easy to carry, anti-collision, not easy to fake (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 with an annual production capacity of more than 11 billion; tinplate three-piece cans manufacturing equipment has more than 500 full-automatic resistance welding machines of various types imported and made in China, with nearly 300 production lines, and its products supply drinks for one year. There are about 4 billion canned food products, about 3.8 billion canned food products, about 200 crown cap production lines, more than 90% of the equipment imported from abroad, the annual market demand is 35 billion; iron printing equipment, iron coating equipment has more than 500 production lines, imported equipment and domestic equipment each half, printing more than 15 billion times a year; all kinds of bottle caps imported; The equipment is up to more than 300 sets, and the annual demand of the whole industry tinplate is about 1 million 400 thousand tons.

 

With the increase of the production capacity of domestic tinplate, the import of tinplate will be gradually reduced, and it will soon be self-sufficient, but some high-grade products still need a small amount of import.

 

The rapid development of beer, canned and beverage industry brings infinite opportunities to metal packaging. In 2001 alone, carbonated drinks and many other non-nitrogen-filled beverages were 16.8 million tons in 2001, bringing the demand for aluminum two-piece cans to 7 billion and tin three-piece cans to 4 billion. The national beer production has reached more than 20 million tons, of which 4% is used for filling two cans and 2.5 billion aluminum cans are needed for 920,000 tons of beer. Some people estimate that the future demand for canned food is 4 billion cans, 43.2 billion bottle caps and 12 billion easy-to-pull caps.

 

Although domestic growth is fast, there is still a big gap compared with foreign countries. It is reported that there are nearly 200 billion tin beverage cans and food cans, more than 200 billion aluminum cans and about 10 billion aerosol cans worldwide each year. The growth rates of Asian beverage cans and food cans in the past decade were 250% for two cans, 63% for three cans and 71% for food cans, respectively.

 

Taking the two items of foreign beverage cans and food cans for example, the annual per capita consumption is about 8 cans of various beverage cans per capita consumption in China. Canned food per capita in China is less than 1 kg a year, while the Japanese per capita 23 kg, the European per capita 50 kg, the United States 90 kg. Advanced countries have used extremely thin metal plates of 0.07 to 0.14mm (iron and drill).