Ilim Group announced that its corrugated box plants — Dmitrov and Kommunar — delivered a record-high volume of 282 million square meters (131 thousand tons) of products in 2021.
Ilim noted that it has increased the output of corrugated board in 2021 by 9% compared to 2020 and, over the last three years, the company's corrugated box business has been demonstrating high growth rates of about 10% per year.
In 2021, EBIDTA of Ilim Group corrugated box plants totaled USD 16.3 million, which is 2.2 times higher vs. 2020, driven by prices for corrugated products as well as finished products output supported by reduction of losses.
"The past year saw the most successful performance of Ilim's corrugated box plants of all time," said Vladimir Shoshin, Director, Packaging Sales, Ilim Group. "When preparing our plans for 2021, we understood that competition pressure in the corrugated materials market will grow as well as feedstock prices.
"Expansion of the company's customer base in the end of 2020, followed by an increase in the number of orders, allowed our box plants to increase their production volumes already in the beginning of 2021," Shoshin explained.
Corrugated box plants in Dmitrov and Kommunar are a part of Ilim Group's vertically integrated production process. In 2021, Ilim's box plants consumed 71% of its own feedstock, which enables the company to ensure full control over production process and avoid disruption in supplies.
Pavel Alekseev, Operations Director, Packaging Business, Ilim Group, added, "Today, the key drivers of the corrugated materials market development include active development of e-commerce, global 'going green' trends as well as conscious consumption."
According to Ilim Group estimates, the demand for corrugated products will grow by 4-5% in 2022.
Ilim's Corrugated Plants
Ilim Group has two corrugated box plants in the Leningrad (Kommunar) and Moscow (Dmitrov) Oblasts. The plants produce several types of products, including transportation, retail and industrial packaging, corrugated trays as well as packaging for posting items and e-commerce. In 2021, Ilim Gofra was named the winner of the international PART Award.
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