30 years of development history of China's paper packaging industry (part 1)

Lead:On April 10th, the United States and Japan almost simultaneously called on companies in China to withdraw from China. At a special moment of the global epidemic, this news aroused the concerns of many netizens, such as "reverse globalization" and "escape from China". Is this really the case? This article will take you to review the development history of China's packaging industry in the past 30 years, and you may be able to see different conclusions from another perspective.

In 1992, Deng Xiaoping made a southern tour and made important speeches along the way, which greatly promoted my country's reform and opening up process, and China thus took the first step as a world factory. Benefiting from the vigorous development of China's manufacturing industry, the paper packaging industry has also ushered in a decades-long period of development dividends, becoming the world's second largest packaging country after the United States in one fell swoop.

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, China's production of machine-made paper and paperboard in 2019 was 12.15 million tons, ranking first in the world; there were 7,916 enterprises above designated size in the packaging industry, and the packaging industry across the country completed a cumulative operating income of 1003.253 billion yuan, of which paper and paper The accumulated operating income of cardboard container manufacturing was 289.717 billion yuan. It is worth mentioning that most of the packaging companies here are Chinese private enterprises. In the packaging field, Chinese companies have become the protagonists.

Looking at the history of China's economic development, many major changes have taken place in China's packaging industry, and the development of China's packaging companies is not easy. There is a saying: Thirty years in Hedong and Thirty years in Hexi. If Comrade Xiaoping's 1992 southern tour speech was used as a starting point, what changes has China's paper packaging industry experienced in the past 30 years?

Groundbreaking: A Chinese packaging company that is growing and exploring

My country's corrugated carton industry started late in the world. It only began to promote the use of corrugated carton in 1954, and the technical starting point was low. At the beginning, the single machine in Japan was used in the 1930s, and the processes were all connected by hand without streamlining. This situation did not change until the mid to late 1970s.

Beginning in 1975, Beijing Carton Factory took the lead in introducing double-layer corrugated board production lines, two-color printing slotting machines, box gluers and other equipment from Japan; since then, Qingdao Carton Factory and Tianjin Foreign Trade Carton Factory have introduced foreign (mainly Japanese) complete sets. During this period, my country also began to manufacture corrugated cardboard production lines on its own. In May 1982, Capital Aerospace Machinery Company developed my country's first 1.2m corrugated paper automated production line, which was the first in China.

In the 1980s, the older generation of packaging companies that developed during the planned economy period began to be cannibalized and replaced by newly emerging companies in the market economy. If Xiaoping notified the Southern Tour in 1992 as the demarcation point, the competition between substitution and anti-substitution would last ten years It took a long time to basically end. Prior to this, Chinese packaging companies had poor overall technology, equipment, and management, and their production efficiency was not high. While continuously introducing various advanced foreign assembly lines, advanced management methods and concepts have also entered China at the same time, laying the foundation for the future development of China's packaging industry.

It was also during this period that packaging equipment manufacturers such as Langston in the United States, Mitsubishi in Japan, BHS in Germany, and Agnati in Italy began to enter the Chinese market.

Seeding: the emerging Hong Kong and Taiwan packaging companies

Since my country's mainland opened to the outside world in the late 1970s, Hong Kong and Taiwan have always been the most important foreign investors in the mainland. Hong Kong and Taiwan enterprises were once role models for mainland enterprises to learn from. The legendary stories of Li Ka-shing, Zeng Xianzi, Wang Yongqing, and Shi Zhenrong have repeatedly chewed many mainland people who dream of starting a business.

In 1992, Comrade Xiaoping visited the south and promoted an ideological liberation movement. This "private trip" in the full sense allowed the continuation of China's national policy of reform and opening up. While advancing the institutional innovation of state-owned enterprise reform and the emergence of a large number of private enterprises, Hong Kong and Taiwan enterprises have further accelerated their pace of entering China.

For a long time after the reform and opening up, Hong Kong and Taiwan investors brought capital and technology to the Mainland, but also brought modern business philosophy and management experience. This statement is also valid in the packaging field. Along with the transfer of manufacturing, a large amount of manufacturing capacity has been moved to the mainland.

The prosperous manufacturing industry has generated massive demand for packaging paper, and Taiwanese-funded paper companies such as Liwen, Yongfengyu, and Wanyou Paper have entered the mainland market. However, some domestic paper companies began to emerge from this storm. In July 1998, the first paper machine (or No. 1 paper machine) under Nine Dragons's Dongguan production base was successfully commissioned, and it was the first to start a business in a decade. . In the downstream of the packaging industry, a hundred flowers bloom in full bloom. The "old brand" packaging and printing companies we are seeing now, such as Hongxing, Xingguang, Xinzhou, Watong, and Shunfeng, can be said to be representative companies in this period.

The prosperity of the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan enterprises is accompanied by the background of the transfer of manufacturing industries. In the 1960s, the West transferred production capacity to the Third World on a large scale, initially to the Asian Four Little Dragons. After the reform and opening up, Hong Kong and Taiwan entrepreneurs saw low costs in the mainland and moved their manufacturing to the mainland. It is based on this background that the packaging industry in different regions also presents different forms.

Due to the geographical location, the investment direction of Hong Kong businessmen is mainly in Guangdong Province, while Taiwan businessmen are mainly in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Fujian and other places. The preference of investors from different backgrounds for equipment selection has resulted in different sources of packaging equipment. For example, in Guangdong, where Hong Kong business is dominated, most of its equipment comes from Europe and the United States, such as Heidelberg, Gaobao, Roland, etc.; in areas where Taiwan business is dominated, equipment mostly comes from Taiwan, such as Xiangyu, Yuli, Shanlong, Ming Wei et al.

But relatively speaking, packaging companies at this stage are completely dependent on local manufacturing companies in order to meet the export packaging needs of Hong Kong and Taiwan companies. Most of the business owners are mainly relatives of their bosses. The factories are small, mixed and scattered. After nearly 30 years of scouring the sand, not many have survived.

Outbreak: Welcome to the global manufacturing playground

In 2001, China's accession to the WTO also marked China's formal entry into the international manufacturing division system. China's overseas investment has ushered in a new wave of climax. A large number of European and American companies have poured into China. The composition of foreign-funded enterprises in my country has become more diversified, and they are not limited to the coastal areas.

Compared with the secondary manufacturing transfer of Hong Kong and Taiwan background, the manufacturing enterprises entering the mainland during this period are relatively more high-end-this statement is also valid in the packaging industry. In 2001, Taiwan’s largest paper company Zhenglong Group entered the mainland paper market and established Zhonglong Paper Holdings Co., Ltd.; in 2006, the world’s largest paper packaging company International Paper announced an investment of US$140 million and China Sun Paper Jointly set up a joint venture company.

In addition, other leading paper packaging companies in the world, such as SCA of Sweden and Smurfit Stone of Oji Paper, established factories in China during this period. Accompanied by more advanced technology, equipment, management, etc. Until now, European and American packaging companies are still the key areas for Chinese packaging companies to study overseas.

Of course, the entry of a large number of advanced European and American paper and packaging companies not only brought technology, equipment or management to China, but also brought ideological changes to Chinese paper and packaging companies, helping them to grow and develop. Chenming was listed on the A-share market in 2000, Shanying Paper was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2001, and Sun Paper was successfully listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2006. On March 3 of the same year, Nine Dragons Paper was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The main board was successfully listed... The era of capital guiding companies began, and Chinese packaging companies embarked on a counterattack journey. And the story after this, we will continue to tell the next article.