All the manufacturers of packaging machinery and peripherals took stock of their situation in the Sector Conference, the annual reference appointment organized by amec packaging, which also served to discuss how they are addressing the challenge of circularity in packaging in order to comply with the new regulations that will come into force in 2030.
The president of amec envasgraf, Michele Palma placeholder image, explained how the environment in which companies in the sector operate is evolving, and evaluated the progress of the year as a whole. "2021 will be a good year, in which we will exceed the number of national and international projects we carried out in 2019, before the pandemic," he stressed. However, Palma added that there is uncertainty about how the next year 2022 will evolve. The United States stands out as the first market, well ahead of France, in second position, and Italy and Germany, in third and fourth place, respectively. While the markets of Europe and the United States have performed very well, Asia and Latin America have slowed down.
Despite the increase in sales, this 2021 has been characterized by the maintenance of mobility difficulties, which have fully affected the holding of major international events. "There is a lot of desire for fairs, since we have verified that there is not yet an equally good alternative to reach new customers", he highlighted Carmina Castella, director of the Amec Clusters Unit, and at the head of amec envasgraf.
The companies discussed the difficult situation they are facing due to rising prices of raw materials, shortages and long general delivery times, and high transport costs and delays, which are influencing the reduction of margins, while having an impact on prices end of products.
During the meeting, the president of amec packaging welcomed new members to the amec community: ABC Compressors, Bossar, Difmaq, Limitronic, MP Systems. Castellà highlighted the high level of participation of companies in the sector in amec's proposals, especially in training, networking and international marketing and promotion activities.
In addition to the fairs, amec will also convene various trade missions to European countries and a digital trade mission to the United States. The successful meeting of companies in the sector with engineering firms will also be repeated.
Likewise, the key issues and challenges that industrial companies must address will be how to adapt to changes, sustainability, cybersecurity, new leadership, position themselves in new digital channels, recruitment of talent and collaboration between companies. Regarding all of them, amec will offer companies support through specific training.
During the meeting, the companies discussed the new opportunities and new challenges offered by the search for circularity in packaging. The manager of the Technological Area of Consulting, Technical Assistance and Innovation of Itene, Nuria Herranz, discussed what the packaging materials will be in the 2030 horizon, at which time all the containers and packaging that are marketed must be recyclable, compostable or reusable. The debate showed that companies have already started their journey in search of the circularity of packaging.
