Secretary-General of Packaging Federation talks about the prospect of PET bottles

Rapid development of domestic and foreign PET, PET bottle market prospects

Since the advent of PET in the 1950s, PET has developed rapidly with its excellent performance and cost-effectiveness brought by large-scale industrial production, with its characteristics of hygiene, safety, light weight, and easy recycling. In 2005, the world's output was 41 million tons, and it is forecasted that it will reach 50 million tons in 2008. China's PET started relatively late, but it has developed rapidly and the output has reached 1.7 million tons. With the increase in demand in the domestic market, PET packaging containers have entered a new Market area.

The use of PET bottles started with carbonated beverages. With the increasing number and variety of beverages, the use of PET bottles continues to increase. Currently, the number of PET containers used in the world has reached 150 billion, while carbonated beverages account for 38%. The output has reached 32 million tons, with an annual growth rate of more than 20%, and PET bottles have accounted for 57% of carbonated beverage packaging; with the sudden emergence of the domestic tea beverage market, tea beverage production has reached 3 million tons. Therefore, PET bottles with hot filling (85°C~90°C) are the fastest growing varieties because of their light weight (56g in 1L, 61g in aluminum cans and 360g in glass). In addition, bottled water includes: Pure water, mineral water and distilled water have entered millions of households and the output exceeds more than 5 million tons. The PET bottle market needed is also a sunrise market with broad prospects for development. In the past two years, there has been a new breakthrough in the international use of PET containers for milk packaging. Italy's pasteurized milk bottles have been changed from HDPE to PET to solve the defects of poor odor and bad taste of polyolefin bottles. The corresponding equipment for blow molding, filling and capping is also solved by Sidel. In addition, the market demand for PET bottles, such as edible oils, seasonings, soy sauce, and vinegar, is continuously increasing, which provides a large market space for them. At the same time, the PET beer bottle market has even more lurking business opportunities. China is the world's largest beer country. In 2006, beer production reached 32 million tons. Currently, glass bottle packaging is still the mainstay, while the United States, Japan and other countries have some beer. The factory uses PET packaging. Calculating the use of PET bottles for 20% of China's beer production, approximately 280-300 million beer bottles are needed, providing ample space for the development of PET beer bottles. At present, few domestic companies are developing PET beer bottles, such as Zhuhai Zhongfu and Shanghai. Zijiang, Zhejiang Huangyan Sanfa, and Xiamen Huakemao Packaging Co., Ltd., all of which are vigorously developing their own co-injection stretch blow molding technology, surface coating technology, multi-layer blending barrier technology, and production and promotion of PET beer bottles. Has achieved significant results. However, as a whole, PET beer bottles are still in their infancy and their market share is very low. There are many reasons for the lack of climate, and it is worth considering and discussing:

1. Improve the quality and freshness of PET beer bottles is the key

Unlike ordinary sour drinks, slight oxidation also changes the taste of the beer, and the penetration of carbon dioxide affects the properties of the foam. Therefore, in order to meet the preservation and preservation requirements, the PET bottles are required to have high barrier properties. At the same time, 95% of the beer in China is produced by pasteurization, requiring the use temperature of the bottle to withstand 75 °C ~ 80 °C, these requirements become the key issues in the development of PET bottles;

2, cost factors and market position

The current price of PET beer bottles is relatively high, about 1 yuan each, while the price of the same capacity glass is 0.5 to 0.8 yuan, and can be recycled. PET bottles can only be recycled and reused. The market position of PET beer bottles should be mass fast-moving consumer goods. It is mainly used for short-term packaging in foreign countries. Due to different domestic consumption levels and concepts, the raw material poly(naphthalene) (PEN) resistance needed for shelf life of 6 months. Oxygen and barrier properties are higher than PET. The use temperature can reach 118°C, but the price of PEN is more than 5 times higher than that of PET and it is difficult to push open.

3, the transformation of existing beer filling equipment

The PET bottle itself is light in weight, and the transfer and capping process in the filling and filling are not the same as the process of glass and the can, and need to be reformed.

In short, the PET beer bottle can only meet the real difficulties in the overcoming of the above problems. Therefore, it can be said that the market development of PET beer bottles is a long way ahead, and related companies need to redouble their efforts.

Conform to national industrial policy guidance, energy saving and consumption reduction received good results

After this year, plastic packaging containers have been experiencing major surges in raw material prices and the surge in labor costs for coal and electricity transportation. After product structure adjustments, bottle shape design and thin-walled technology have made new advancements. At the same time, according to national industry-oriented policies, Daxing Energy saving and reducing consumption. Reducing costs has improved the efficiency of enterprises and received better results. For example, the blowing bottle production line of Shanghai Zijiang Special Bottle Industry Co., Ltd. is connected with the Pepsi filling line. Blowing, packaging, and transportation on the spot reduce costs and ensure quality. Both parties receive revenue. Large-scale hollow container molding enterprises and container manufacturing industries have greater potential for energy-saving technologies. Among them, injection molding of blanks for hydraulic and pneumatic systems and raw materials and modules, opening and closing of molds, and control of additional actions are all major parts of energy consumption. Can greatly save power consumption. At the same time, the development of multi-point radial wall thickness servo control system technology can reduce the weight of products, save energy and reduce consumption as well as increase production efficiency. Qinchuan Future Plastic Press Factory has new brand-new and good results.

This year, the country has established a special energy-saving fund of 5 billion yuan for the research, development, and promotion of energy conservation. In this regard, plastic packaging containers and equipment companies have a lot to offer. We must have the courage to independent innovation, improve the level of technical equipment, and shorten the gap with foreign countries. Our industry can certainly Get better development.

Comprehensively improve the quality of plastic packaging containers and speed up the process of market access for plastic packaging containers and tools for food

The National Quality Work Conference was held in Beijing on July 27, 2007. Premier Wen Jiabao pointed out at the meeting that “product quality concerns the vital interests of the people, concerns the survival and development of enterprises, and is related to the country’s image. With the development of economy and society, people’s living standards With continuous improvement, people’s demands for product quality and food safety are getting higher and higher, and we must work hard to meet the needs of the people.If a company wants to gain a firm foothold in the market and be competitive, it must be in terms of product quality. Work hard to achieve the goal of winning by quality.Only by creating brand products with hard quality, can we increase the international market share and establish a good image of our products.In the face of the new situation, we must fully understand the quality and food safety work. The significance of this is to increase the awareness of doing a good job in this work.” The packaging container industry must comply with this requirement, improve product quality in an all-round way, and speed up the process of admitting the market for plastic container tools for food packaging.

From July 18 last year, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine promulgated and implemented the market access system for plastic packaging containers for food, which has played a positive role in improving the quality of food plastic packaging products. However, due to the large number of manufacturing enterprises, there are still imperfect standards. There are also many difficulties in reporting procedures and reporting methods. Therefore, there were only 327 certified companies from the end of August to the end of August (there are 3,700 across the country), and most enterprises still wait and see the market access system. For this reason, it is stipulated that from January 1, 2008, production licenses must not be produced and sold without a production license.

All relevant companies must raise awareness, take the initiative to accredit, and accelerate the entry process. Fundamentally changing the loose and unstable production and business model in the past, we must start from strengthening quality management and quality certification system. At the very least, for an enterprise, it is necessary to improve inspection institutions and methods, ie, inspection personnel and testing equipment. Only in this way can we know if our products are in compliance with the relevant standards. This is the most basic requirement for QS certification. At the same time, the two important factors for the safety of food packaging are the selection of raw and auxiliary materials that meet the food hygiene requirements. Although the prices of these materials are higher, they can guarantee the quality and safety requirements of packaging materials. Second, environmental conditions must meet the requirements for certification. In order to meet environmental conditions, some plants and equipment need to do some material input. These two are the most basic and necessary conditions for completing the certification.

Rely on Independent Technical Innovation to Improve the Technical Level of PET Packaging Containers

At present, the international PET bottle processing technology is changing with each passing day, emerging in an endless stream, and its main development direction is to improve the barrier performance and heat resistance. As a result, surface coating technology, co-injection stretch blow molding technology, and blend modification technology have emerged, and these technologies have been introduced into China. It is worthy of the introduction of attention is that nano-modified PET bottle technology is being developed, containing 10% to 30% of clay nanometer and nylon composites to become the main direction of high barrier nano modified PET beer bottles. For example, China's Henan Zhanggong Group uses nanotechnology to coat PET beer bottles with inner walls to improve the superior performance of PET bottles against ultraviolet rays, oxygen, and carbon dioxide. Vigorously developing beer bottles, wines, and fresh juice bottles has achieved good results.

In addition, in the preforms international injection molding system has been developed to 144 cavity 216 cavity, of which, 96 cavity cycle is only 7.5 seconds, and developed a multi-layer co-injection preform system for beer bottles. The blow molding machine has also developed to 1600 bottles/cavity. It can be seen that the gap between our PET processing equipment and the international technology level is still relatively large. In short, we must track the development trend of PET processing technology in the world and establish our own innovation system. We will optimize PET material characteristics, molding processing equipment technology, mold structure and bottle shape design, etc. High-speed, energy-saving and safe development, creating its own brand, shortening the distance with advanced foreign technologies, standing invincible in the fierce competition, and ushering in new opportunities for PET packaging containers.

Reproduced, please indicate the source: Chinese bottle net