Latest reports from China Packaging Federation (CPF) showed the number of industrial entities engaging in packaging business with individual annual revenue over RMB20 million reached 8,183 in 2020, up +3.4% from the previous year. Together with all other mid-to-small operators, the overall revenue amounted to 1.01 trillion yuan in the year. Though down -1.1% from that of 2019 in revenue, the whole industry earnings rose +24.90% to nearly RMB61.04 billion in 2020, regardless of the pandemic assault.

During the year, core business revenue of the paper and paperboard packaging sector totaled RMB288.47 billion, accounting for 28.66% of the whole packaging industry. Though down -2.53% in revenue, it contributed RMB14.43 billion in earnings, which grew +3.99% year-on-year to take up 23.63% in the overall industry. The reduction in revenue was partly the result of a -3.31% decrease in corrugated box output to 31.71 million/mt under the impacts of COVID-19 during the year.

It is expected that the declines in plastics packaging will spur greater demand for paper and paperboard packaging. This will be especially true for coated SBS board based packages. Market analysts forecast that when food boxes made of coated SBS board covers 70% of China's fast food business by 2025, it will consume 1.45 million/mt of coated SBS board! And demand has already begun to grow since the 2nd half of 2020, pushing the price of coated SBS board to go up repeatedly. By early March 2021, price hit RMB10,010/mt, up +65.81% from a year ago! For April, mainstream producers such as Sun Paper, Chenming Paper, Bohui Paper, are adding a new 5% increase from March, which, if successful, will drive price to the RMB10,510/mt range.