Like all industries, corrugated board has been impacted by the health crisis. Over the year 2020, production amounted to 2.6 million tons of corrugated cardboard, a decrease of 5.3% compared to 2019 (- 3.9% in m2) for a turnover of 2.87 billion euros, or -7.6% compared to 2019. Kareen Desbouis is General Delegate of Carton Ondulé de France, which represents 70% of companies in the sector.
How is the sector faring in this period of health crisis?
The cardboard manufacturers have gone through this crisis like all companies with difficulties and reorganization of production. Some sectors such as the automotive industry have completely stopped during the crisis, but there has been an important reorientation in the food industry, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, hygiene, and of course e-commerce. Reorganizations were also made according to regions, since at the beginning of the epidemic, they were not all impacted in the same way. The entire sector has shown great agility in adapting to the crisis and continuing to supply its customers.
E-commerce, on the other hand, has increased significantly?
Yes, according to Fevad figures we were at about 14% increase every year, and in 2020 we reached 28% increase. In corrugated board (packaging for online sales is mainly made of corrugated board), e-commerce represented 5 to 7% of production before the crisis. Post-crisis, it is difficult to assess, but it is indeed a field that is developing a lot, with demands that can be periodic and therefore require a certain agility for the factories.
What are the big projects of Carton ondulé de France?
The big projects concern packaging regulations and their implementation; the Agec law, the climate law currently under discussion, the implementation of the Single-use Plastics Directive, which concerns a lot of packaging, not only plastic packaging.
These regulations were built very quickly on ideas that seem very simple, but turn out to be particularly complex to implement. They involve explaining what packaging is, what paperboard is, how we operate, the complexity of our industry. Today, it is plastic packaging that is the main focus of criticism, but behind this is the entire packaging sector that is being called into question.
