Smurfit Westrock’s paper pallet wrap set to drive down supply chain emissions

Through continued innovation and collaboration with brand owners, Ahlstrom has identified specific technology enabling highly developed base papers – the key to solving the barrier requirements in flexible packaging, while still utilizing the inherent end-of-life benefits that paper has to offer. Ahlstrom has the unique set of capabilities and wide breadth of technical applications to allow them to develop some of the strongest performing base papers available. “Paper substrates can be engineered to exploit the inherent value of cellulose itself,” explained Zack Leimkuehler, Vice President Business Development for Ahlstrom. “Cellulose by itself is a very good barrier, and highly developed base papers can deliver barrier properties.” Paper is an ideal material for flexible packaging applications, and already has a broad field-of-use from good flexibility and folding characteristics to printabilty. Paper is easily sealable and glueable, laminating well to other structures. In addition, paper functions effectively through challenging converting processes.

Smithers anticipates major changes as $231.7 billion world corrugated packaging market returns to growth trajectory. Global containerboard and corrugated board demand are facing a series of challenges and shifts in market dynamics across the next five years. These are expertly profiled, and quantified in the new market data report – The Future of Global Corrugated Packaging to 2029 – from Smithers. Published today, its in-depth analysis of capacity changes, pulp pricing, and end-user demands shows that in 2023, global containerboard production was 183.4 million metric tons, a -4% decline on 2022. These were converted into around 165 million tons of corrugated board, a decrease of more than -7% on 2022; with value reaching $224.4 billion. This reflects the end of the period of disruption in world supply that began in 2020 with Covid-19, which was characterized by disruption to global logistics impacting demand, price fluctuations leading to high inventories, and subsequent destocking.

Net sales increased by 31% in the second quarter. In comparable terms, growth reached 17%, driven by pricing actions. In most markets, demand developed favorably and has returned to pre-pandemic levels, however with some exceptions, particularly in China. Tensions on raw material availability limited our capacity to further grow volumes according to the demand, most notably in North America. We continued to mitigate the significant inflation which impacted all our major input costs, including raw materials, freight costs, energy and labor. We protected our profitability through operational efficiency improvements and pricing actions, with the adjusted EBIT increasing by 29%. Cash flow remained impacted by increased working capital and capital expenditure. We continued our organic investment into sustainable product innovation and business expansion. For example, we announced the expansion of our molded fiber product manufacturing unit in Hammond, Indiana, US. This investment in fiber technology supports market demand for more sustainable solutions in North America, such as egg cartons and cup carriers. The planned USD 100 million investment will start ramping up towards the end of 2023.