Majority of new capacity will be brown recycled grades
There is no end in sight to the massive wave of investments in the European corrugated case material segment. For 2019 and 2020, new construction and rebuilding projects totalling around 4 million t in capacity have been announced by producers throughout Europe. Another investment focus lies on rebuilding machinery that used to manufacture graphic paper.
Corrugated board, and therefore also corrugated case material, is benefitting primarily from a flourishing online trade. Although capacities have already been raised considerably over the past two years, corrugated case material markets have so far proven to be balanced. Additional capacities were offset by constant consumption growth. However, this year in the summer a weaker phase set in. After a long phase that commenced in spring 2017 during which prices only moved in one direction – upwards -, they have become a topic of discussion once again, and even price reductions are not completely out of the question any more.
