China’s packaging industry has undergone great change and development during the last five years in order to comply with Good Manufacturing Standards of the West. However, is this the right time to implement a new fifteen step plan to move China closer to a Western system of corporate social responsibility? Or is it just a case of good old fashion state control in the work place?
In 2002 China’s pharmaceutical industry was estimated at 32.7 billion euro’s, however since then China has opened its doors to Western organisations, improving its standards by not compromising the shelf life of its products.
At one time the Chinese domestic market was often generalised about as being young and undeveloped, relying upon Western organisations import capacity.
Since then the Chinese packaging industry has developed to an extent where by they are implementing legislation which will not only effect China but the world.
China’s packaging industry has over many years fuelled the development of the packaging industry, as it was a preconception from Chinese manufacturers that Western machinery was more reliable and faster. Is this perception now
changing within the Chinese domestic market?
It has been estimated that over 20,000 packaging companies exist in China employing approximately 3 million employees across the country. China has become the world's third largest packaging country next to US and Japan.
China’s packaging industries annual output value is estimated to grow at an annual rate of 7% realising RMB450 billion during 2011-2015. This annual output value is expected to break through RMB600 billion as the average annual growth rate increases to around 16%. Estimated increases effect plastic packaging products 9.46 million tons, metal packaging products 4.91 tons, glass packaging products 15.5 million tons and packaging machines 1.2 million sets, paper packaging products reaching 36 million tons. Thus, does the new legislation being implemented by China's Ministry of Environmental Protection motion an emerging period of great change?
Everything must be used, recyclable, recoverable, reusable or compostable, packaging in China is destined to change forever and with it possibly the bottom lines of Western packaging. A direct result of this change will impact on all companies working within the
Chinese packaging industry. It is approximated that the fifteen new standards have been put in place as part of China’s great plan for China's Ministry of Environmental Protection has been implementing strategies affecting the manufacturing of packing materials and final products from Chemistry to PET resin.
Under the new guidelines the Chinese Government is intending to introduce the concept of Extended User responsibility or should we call it corporate social responsibility whereby the brand-owner pays for both collection and clean-up process. Supporting these new regulations are stiff penalties for non compliance or failure to comply within a specified time frame.
As the new guidelines will affect the entire packing supply chain, some of the ways your company might be affected are, if you import materials into China, if you are a packaging manufacturer with subsidiaries in China, your organisation sells packaging equipment directly to China, or exports / packaging products directly from China.
______________________________
Want to read more? ______________________________
