Raffaele Angelillo
When I do training, to introduce the subject of corrugated cardboard I usually start by talking about e-commerce: it is part of the daily experience of all of us and shows how much the growth of online sales has impacted on the development of this type of packaging. And then I move on to the basic issues affecting the ‘corrugated’ supply chain: from the demand for consumer goods, to which the demand for the cardboard boxes needed for their transport is so closely related, through the high, fluctuating and now more penalising energy and raw material costs.
We are thus talking about a complex and multifaceted industry, in which Italy is the second largest European market in terms of production after Germany (Gifco data), with applications in the food but also in the non-food consumer (consumer electronics, household appliances, etc.) and manufacturing industries, where we have so many small and medium-sized players.
An industry, therefore, with great opportunities and prospects, which today is facing economic challenges (low prices and low margins) and environmental ones (a field in which cardboard wins hands down for its undisputed sustainable nature). And also technological challenges, given the delicate nature of a difficult substrate, which the market wants increasingly beautiful and well printed, to fulfill new communication functions that were previously the prerogative of other forms of packaging.
These are opportunities and challenges that stimulate all players to find new technologies and products that meet the needs of their target markets, with an increasing focus on innovation and process optimisation – including printing, which is experiencing great buzz.
In this issue we have brought a bit of all this together, recounting sustainability in the widest possible sense, offering updates on the technical aspects of processing – as in the contribution on the plate package for flexography – and recounting the ability of corrugated to continually transform itself with many stories from converters, printers and suppliers. A sector – as suggested by the interest and growth of the Corrugated Experience area in the forthcoming Print4All 2025 – in which many are investing resources and projects.
