American Forest & Paper Association Releases July 2020 Boxboard Monthly Report

Smurfit Kappa has launched a new range of eBottle packaging solutions for the rapidly growing online beverage and liquids market. The new portfolio includes a variety of sustainable solutions for single and multi-pack products, including the Rollor bottle pack, BiPack, and Pop-up insert. The surge in e-commerce due to the Covid-19 pandemic is evident across all sectors and the beverage market has also seen a significant impact. In particular, online sales for alcoholic beverages has increased by 34% in Europe driving a demand for sustainable, durable and consumer friendly packaging that protects the product during shipment. Key challenges for the beverage e-commerce channel are product damage, sustainability, consumer experience and the ability to accelerate growth using the right packing processes. Consumer research carried out by Smurfit Kappa also shows consumers are continuing to push for higher standards.

Mondi has commissioned and completed a life cycle assessment (LCA) for its ground-breaking paper-based Hug&Hold solution, to determine its environmental impact compared to that of conventional low-density polyethylene shrink wrap for six 1.5 litre PET beverage bottles. Hug&Hold is an innovative, sustainable and fully recyclable solution to replace plastic shrink wrap on the PET bottle bundle packs. It comprises two elements - a kraft paper sleeve to provide secure and safe transportation and a corrugated carrying handle that firmly holds the bottles around the neck, featuring an integrated handle for convenience and strength. The assessment shows that Hug&Hold has lower impacts in the categories of climate change, fossil resource use, photochemical ozone formation, acidification, ionising radiation, water use and eutrophication of freshwater. The overall carbon footprint is 43% lower than average LDPE virgin plastic shrink wrap and 15% lower than LDPE shrink wrap with 100% recycled content, meaning it can be recommended to reduce the climate change impacts of packaging while providing a strong solution for the customer and end user.

Net income for the first six months of 2021 was $167.8 million as compared to net income of $135.8 million for the first six months of 2020. Net sales for the first six months of 2021 increased $380.0 million, or 17.2 percent, to $2.59 billion as compared to $2.21 billion for the first six months of 2020. This increase was primarily a result of higher unit volumes in each of the Dispensing and Specialty Closures and Metal Container segments, the pass through of higher raw material costs, the impact of favorable foreign currency translation and a more favorable mix of products sold in the Dispensing and Specialty Closures and Custom Container segments, partially offset by lower volumes in the Custom Container segment and a higher percentage of smaller cans sold in the Metal Container segment.