The current supply situation and the exorbitantly long delivery times for cartonboard are likely to persist for some time to come, as the Folding Carton Industry Association concludes from a recent flash survey. Customers can make a significant contribution to easing the situation by optimising their forecasts for the packaging quantities actually required.
„We believe that appropriate communication between the respective market partners is crucial in order to stabilise the supply chain when it is out of sync, by efficiently linking customers' actual current and future requirements for folding cartons with raw material capacities“, says Andreas Helbig, spokesman for the FFI-Board of Directors.
However, the following remain challenging external factors such as volatility in the supply of recovered paper, the development of energy costs or general price increases. Nevertheless, the supply chain for folding cartons made from the natural, renewable and certified sustainable raw material wood or recycled paper is considered resilient.
The FFI flash survey shows, among other things a currently significantly extended range of the folding carton manufacturers' own order backlog compared to the beginning of 2021. At the moment, the average order backlog is sufficient for a production run of eleven weeks. This contrasts with delivery times for virgin fibre or recycled cartonboard, some of which are significantly longer. In several rounds of price increases, the costs for virgin fibre cartonboard rose by between 10 and 20 percent for the most part, and for recycled cartonboard by more than 20 percent for more than two thirds of the 36 folding carton manufacturers participating in the FFI survey.
What is striking, but partly understandable against this backdrop, are the developments in their own inventories. More than half of the companies reported an increase or sharp increase in their stocks of raw materials. Solutions to the distortions in the supply chain are primarily seen in improved communication and pragmatic planning of realistic requirements for cartonboard and folding cartons.
Source: FFI
