Japanese delegation heading to interpack

Showcasing Japan at interpack 2014, which runs May 8-14 in Düsseldorf, will be the likes of C.I. Kasei Co Ltd, Fuji Machinery Co Ltd, Kajiwara Inc, Mitsuhashi Corporation, Omori Machinery Co Ltd, Strapack Corporation, Topack Co Ltd, Toppan Printing Co Ltd and Totani Corporation.

JPI, the Tokyo-based packaging industry association of 1,100 members, will also be present at the event to meet with parties interested in better understanding the Japanese packaging market and its abundant business opportunities.

JPI has reported that between September 2013 and March 2014 alone, the Japanese packaging industry invested heavily in production capacity expansion to meet both domestic and overseas demand. Toppan Printing Co Ltd has announced a 264.4 million USD investment in a new flexible packaging materials plant in Gunma Prefecture. Meanwhile, Rengo Co Ltd is preparing to start operations at a new corrugated plant in Okayama Prefecture, Japan.

Overseas, Rengo is currently constructing a 10 million USD corrugated box manufacturing facility in Dong Nai Province, Vietnam. In Indonesia, Dai Nippon Printing Co Ltd has invested 59.8 million USD in expanding production capacity at an existing plant while at the same time constructing a new facility. In Vietnam, it also recently started operations at its new facility near Ho Chi Minh City to service global brand owners manufacturing in the country, and also take up some of the growing export demand for flexible packaging in South-east Asia which was previously met by the DNP Indonesia operations.

Japan itself shipped a total of 18.37 million tons of packaging materials and containers in 2012, worth 55.28 billion USD, while 364,251 units of packaging machinery valued at 4.24 billion USD were shipped, according to data from JPI.