Demand growth for white top liners has increased significantly higher than the overall growth in corrugated packaging during the past year, according to a new report released this week by RISI, Boston, Mass., USA. According to the study, white top liner segments will likely post better profit margins over their brown counterparts as demand for white top liner in Europe continues to grow.
2012 Outlook for European White Top Containerboard Markets with 2013 Update examines and forecasts market developments, providing historical analysis of the white top containerboard market from 2002 – 2012 and covering supply and demand trends by country, trade, production costs, pricing, and profitability until 2016.
During the past decade, the European containerboard market has already grown by close to 5 million metric tons, and white top containerboard accounts for 20% of this growth. Although white top liners (both white top testliner and white top kraftliner) only make up a 12% share (3.6 million metric tons) of total European containerboard demand, demand for white top liners is being driven upward by printing quality requirements on the part of end-users and brand owners for retail-ready packaging, according to Orifjon Abidov, senior economist for European Paper Packaging at RISI.
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