Market Overview

The high-performance packaging materials market size in 2020 (domestic shipment volume as well as exported volume) rose to 771,080 tons, 98.7% of the previous year. When observing the details, shipment volume of base films was 361,210 tons (98.8% on YoY), barrier films 71,100 tons (98.7% on YoY), sealant films 306,670 tons (99.0% on YoY), and shrink films for labeling 32,100 tons (95.6% on YoY).

In addition to packaging material films becoming thinner and thinner from the viewpoint of environmental friendliness for the past several years, demand for packaging materials for business use significantly dropped in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic which asked the nation to stay at home as much as possible and the restaurants to temporarily close or shorten the business hours. On the other hand, COVID-19 infections increased the opportunity to dine at home, which expanded the demand for packaging materials for household (commercial) food as well as for high-barrier films from the perspective of food loss.

Noteworthy Topics

Pouch Bags

Against the backdrop of increased single-person household and women’s participation in the society, demand for ready-to-eat meals have grown, as more people dine at home to eat prepared dishes or bento that they have bought. To respond to demand for shorten the cooking time or to simplify cooking, each convenience store has enhanced offering of a wide variety of prepared dishes and delis under private brand.

For such dishes and deli sold at convenience stores as their private brand, stand-up pouch bags have been mainly used as the packaging material. Meanwhile, aluminum pouches have long been used for the package of small amount of curries and pasta sauces served for each person, which can be warmed by putting the whole pouch into the boiling water. Now that the demand for private-brand deli at convenience stores has run its course, the packaging for curries and pasta sauces is very likely to replace aluminum pouches, and demand for microwavable flat pouches is expected to increase hereafter. Lately, these pouches are in demand not only for private-brand delis but also for national-brand household prepared food sold at supermarkets, etc. 

Future Outlook

As consumers' awareness of the environment is making great progress on a global scale, manufacturers of containers and packaging materials operating in Japan cannot remain unrelated to this trend, as they share awareness, confirm cooperation, and agree on action plans to solve environmental problems beyond national boundaries.

Efforts to reduce CO2 emissions and encourage environmental responsiveness at user companies, such as increasing the use of eco-friendly plastics made from biomass materials and recycled materials, improving recyclability by reviewing package design and material composition, and proposing alternative plastic materials, etc., have become the conditions for container and package material manufacturers to survive.

Container and package material manufacturers are required to develop containers and packaging materials that can be responsive to the demand suitable to the current era, and connect the environmental considerations to the company’s business expansion and make it the opportunity for new product development and proposals.

Research Outline