The World Containerboard Organisation (WCO), worldwide representative of producers of corrugated base materials, located in Brussels/ Belgium, has published its forecast for 2018/2019 (‘Outlook for Containerboard Markets’). It gives a macroeconomic overview in different continents before focusing on the development of containerboard.
In its editorial WCO says that the extent of the recovery was slightly underestimated last year. Experts of economical Institutes, financial institutes and banks were wrong with their forecasts for 2017. Nevertheless, the trend of containerboard was correctly predicted by WCO.
Worldwide demand for containerboard grew by +3.5%. The European markets performed well with +4.5% and put Asia in second place with a growth of +3.8%. In North America the demand climbed by +2.8% and even Latin America seems to have overcome the crisis. After -0.5% in 2016, an increase of +1.3% was achieve in 2017.
For 2018 WCO forecasts a worldwide demand growth of +2.9%, where Asia would regain the top spot with +3.5%. In Europe the demand will be slightly lower than in 2017, however, a growth of +2.4% is expected. The demand growth in Eastern Europe, at +3.7%, remains very strong.
The development of capacities is also covered in the report. While in 2017 6.2 mio tons came on the market, it is expected that in 2018 8.8 mio tons of containerboard and in 2019 an additional 6.7 mio tons of containerboard will come on stream worldwide. Nevertheless, the increase in demand is expected to offset the new capacities, although utilisation rates are expected to go down a bit. In Europe in 2018, additional capacities of 2.3 mio tons (+5.6%) are expected and in 2019 further capacity increase of 1.6 mio tons (+3.7%) have been announced.
For additional information visit www.wco-containerboard.org
