Flexible Intermediate Bulk Containers (FIBC) Market Intelligence

Industry Outlook & Drivers

Global Market Outlook on Flexible Intermediate Bulk Containers (FIBC)

The major driver for growth of FIBCs will be the need for light weight and less costly means to carry heavy loads

• Recycled bulk bags, innovative dispensing trends and FIBC carriers are new trends adopted by the suppliers to increase the market share
• Globally, food and beverage and chemical, together, contribute to more than 45 percent of demand, making them the major end-use segments
• Owing to COVID, end-use demand is expected to shift toward pharmaceuticals, and the overall growth is expected to reduce by 2–3 percent

Currently, FIBCs are a small segment of flexible bulk packaging market, due to the wide acceptance of shipping sacks and film wraps as the traditional packaging materials. The growing adoption levels in the developing regions of APAC will help in increasing their demand in the next 3–5 years. Impact of COVID is expected to reduce the market growth by 2–3 percent in the next two years

Market Outlook of Flexible Bulk Packaging*

• The global flexible bulk packaging demand was $35.7 billion in 2019, growing at 3–4 percent until 2024
• Flexible bulk packaging is expected to contribute to 55 percent of the global bulk packaging demand in 2019 and grow faster than rigid bulk packaging
• This growth will be led by the growth of films and FIBCs, which are expected to grow at 8–9 percent and 3-4 percent, respectively, from 2019 to 2024

Major Drivers

• Ease of transportation over rigid bulk packaging fuels the growth of flexible bulk packaging. They are also efficient, in terms of convenience and reuse, thereby, slowly replacing rigid bulk containers, such as drums
• The use of film wraps during transportation on pallets to bundle items is expected to remain as the major trend in the logistics industry

Global Trade Dynamics – FIBCs

FIBC export, import trade traffic has been stable in 2019, growing marginally at 1–2 percent compared to 2018. The major importing region was North America and few countries in Western Europe, contributing to more than 30 percent of the imports. The labor-intensive FIBC manufacturing process has led to buyers opting for low-cost labor countries, like China, India, and Malaysia, for their FIBC requirements, making Asia, the best sourcing

North America

Demand has almost doubled in the US for imports, while the export traffic has been steady. However, the trade tensions between the US and China can impact this significantly in the long term.

Europe

The UK, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland have increased import traffic from China for FIBC requirements. The UK is the major importer comprising of 12 percent of the European FIBC import.

Asia

China contributes to 28 percent of the global export traffic, followed by India, which contributes to 7 percent. Imports in South East Asian countries have been increasing for the past few years.