2019 was a good year for the German cardboard box industry: both production volume and production value increased again. However, price pressure remains high in Europe.

In the 2019 financial year, the German cardboard box industry was able to increase its production volume by 9.6 % to 954,154 t compared to the previous year. The production value increased by 4.1 % to EUR 1.944 bn in the same period. However, this increase includes a technical correction to the reporting system at the Federal Statistical Office. In the overall market, this results in an allocation that does not allow a direct comparison with the previous year. Therefore, the development among the members of Germany’s cardboard box industry trade association “Fachverband Faltschachtel-Industrie e. V. (FFI)”, which make up two thirds of the production value and slightly more than half of the volume of the entire industry, is more meaningful.

For FFI members, the production volume increased by 2.3 %, while the corresponding production value increased by 3.3 %. Overall, this confirms the robustness of the cardboard box industry, which has continuously grown slightly over the past three years. Regardless of this, there is still high price pressure in Europe. The calculated production value of the cardboard boxes produced fell by 5 % to EUR 2,037/t.

“Up until the beginning of the corona crisis, we benefited from the overall economic situation with a good consumer mood and a higher propensity to buy, but overall we are in very strong European competition, which we are actively facing,” says Andreas Helbig, Spokesman for the FFI Board. In a European comparison, the German cardboard box industry accounts for around a fifth of the European production volume. This makes it about twice the size of Great Britain, France or Italy.

The current financial year is primarily dominated by the corona pandemic. In the first half of 2020, the production volume of the German cardboard box industry increased by 3.3 % compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, and the corresponding production value by 0.4 %. The FFI members grew by 5.7 % (production volume) and 0.3 % (production value).

For the third quarter of 2020, only the data of the FFI members are currently available. Accordingly, production activity decreased by 1.3 % compared to the corresponding autumn quarter of 2019. The corresponding production value decreased by 5.3 %.

In addition to the current challenges for the cardboard box industry, there are fundamental discussions about the environmental relevance of packaging, which will also dominate the future. A substitution of other packaging materials by cardboard boxes cannot currently be proven. The fact is, however, that as circular packaging it not only protects the product, but also comes from a renewable source and is recycled after use.