China’s Packaging Equipment Industry is Growing – China Export Data

10 August 2021

Packaging machinery is used through all packaging operations, involving primary packages to distribution packs. This includes many packaging processes – cleaning, fabrication, sealing, filling, labelling, combining, overwrapping and palletizing. Packaging machinery & equipment can be divided into three major types. These are forming machinery & equipment (providing packaging such as carton machines, paper bag machines, blow molding machines, etc.); packaging equipment (filling machines in the beverage industry, sealing machines, carton sealing machines, etc.) and labelling machines (perform labelling & coding after the package is packaged).

Since long, China’s packaging equipment industry has been improving and growing. According to China export data, China’s exports of packaging equipment valued USD 1,197 million in 2016, that dollar amount rose to USD 2,088 million in 2020. The packaging equipment industry has doubled in the last 5 years.

China’s Packaging Equipment Exports by Type and Year

China majorly exports three types of packaging equipment namely forming machinery/equipment (HS Code 844130 & 844120), packaging equipment (HS Code 842240) and labelling machines (HS Code 842230). From 2016, China has been recording an increase in the export value of all these packaging equipment. Analyze China export statistics of packaging equipment by type recorded in the last 5 years.  

China Packaging Equipment Exports by Industry 2020

The paper packaging is the top industry in China, which saw a tremendous growth in 2020. At present, the packaging industry as a whole is showing a development trend of stronger and stronger. The market concentration in wine equipment, beverage equipment, dairy equipment, meat processing and back-end packaging represented by beer, dairy products and beverages has reached a high level. Below given chart shows value in percentile of China’s exports of packaging equipment by industry reported in 2020.

With the considerable improvement of Chinese people’s living standards, the demand structure of consumers is transforming and upgrading. And so, the demand for packaging products has also been upgraded from the original simple packaging protection function requirements to reflect product quality and consumer grade requirements.

At present, China’s express delivery & construction industry are still within the scope of labour-intensive and due to the increasing number of people receiving higher education. Therefore, the labour market demand will further drive the upgrading of packaging machinery & equipment industry in China.

China is the top exporter country of machinery category including all types of machineries & equipment, with market share of 21% recorded in 2020. Despite Covid-19 pandemic, China’s packaging equipment industry is rising and expected to see a tremendous growth in future as well.