Demand for corrugated boxes is expected to spike by around 3-5% during 2022-2025

Pandemic-driven shift in consumer buying preferences, increasing focus on sustainability and stringent environmental regulations is expected to impact the market positively especially on the recycled containerboard.

Raleigh, North Carolina, Mar 02 -- The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a sharp spike in demand for corrugated boxes as consumer buying preferences have skewed heavily towards e-Commerce. Strict environmental protection regulations have further increased the sales in the containerboard industry?due to the use of recycled raw material (recycled Containerboard). ? 

The corrugated industry outlook seems promising as a spike of 3-5% in demand has been predicted from 2022 to 2025. Recycled and lightweight paper composites are the innovative raw material used in corrugated production.  

Corrugated cardboard manufacturers aim to fulfil sustainability goals by using FEFCO standardized boxes that will lower the volume of packaging material used across the e-Commerce, food and beverage, healthcare, personal care, and retail industry.  

Lower water consumption is an added boost to sustainable manufacturing processes. Lower cost of tooling, minimal wastage, ease of customization, availability of inserts and printing aids, high performance, and low weight are some of the key pros corrugated boards offer. ? 

The need of the hour is lower waste and sustainability. Corrugated board ticks all the boxes as it is low cost and manufactured with recycled materials. As the efforts to reduce the use of single use plastics continues and buyers becoming more engaged towards sustainability, usage of corrugated products are increasing. Innovations in sustainability are being introduced by corrugated suppliers and one of the main aspects this trend are companies making packaging from 100 percent recyclable materials.  

“Demand for recyclable materials in packaging will be driving the ship in the near future. Packaging costs are reduced by nearly 20% using standardized corrugated cardboard boxes. This has changed the way food and beverage, healthcare, retail, and e-Commerce companies look at packaging,” said Narendranath B, Senior Analyst at Beroe.? 

Corrugated board suppliers in U.S. have announced around $60-70/ton price hike for containerboard grades in Q1 2022 citing increase in input costs and supply chain pressures along with steady corrugated box demand.  

Increasing input costs as well as energy costs is expected to push the prices upwards, however, continued soft demand in the region is likely to prevent drastic price increases in rest of 2022. In the European corrugated board market, we anticipate a breather in the forthcoming quarter after the market had witnessed a marathon of hikes since Q4 2020.  

Owing to the balanced market dynamics, Beroe does not expect any significant price movements for the rest of the year. 

“The need for packaging has increased manifold in the past couple of years as the Covid-19 pandemic has been instrumental in a massive increase in e-Commerce and the healthcare industry. Switching to recycled corrugated from virgin fiber will help achieve global sustainability goals. The corrugated box packaging meets the criteria of the 3Rs of ‘reducing, recycling, and reusing’ that will reduce the burden on landfills as well as keep packaging costs low,” said Narendranath B, Senior Analyst at Beroe. 

The future of packaging is FEFCO standardized corrugated box packaging across industries. The supply chain concerns being negligible, the retail, e-Commerce, food and beverage, and healthcare industry are set to cut costs and reduce wastage in packaging. ? 

About Beroe 

Beroe is a global SaaS-based procurement intelligence and analytics provider. We deliver intelligence, data, and insights that enable companies to make smarter sourcing decisions – leading to lower cost, reduced risk, and greater profits. Beroe has been a trusted source of intelligence for more than 15 years and presently partners with 10,000 companies worldwide, including 400 of the Fortune 500 companies. For more information about Beroe Inc., please visit https://www.beroeinc.com/.  

Media Contact: 
Rob McMurtrie 
rob.mcmurtrie@beroe-inc.com?