European Association Releases Corrugated Statistics

Published: July 09, 2010

BRUSSELLS, BELGIUM | The European Federation of Corrugated Board Mfrs. (FEFCO) recently released the Annual Statistics of the European Mfrs. of Corrugated Packaging. The year 2009 was a difficult year for the industry, showing an overall decrease in volume of shipments of -4.9% (m2) or minus 5.2% (tons); in total 39 billion sq m of corrugated packaging were sold last year.

Compared to some other industries, the corrugated industry is coming through this difficult economic crisis in outstandingly good shape, the group reports. Indicators for 2010 show that the industry is recovering. First months results again show fast growing volumes already exceeding the results of 2007 which serves as the last normal reference year.

One major reason for the relatively good result–compared to other industries–lays in the customer segmentation: 46.3% of all shipments go to the fast-moving consumer goods sectors such as foodstuffs, agricultural, beverages, and tobacco. This sector is less dependent than others on industrial and overall economic development.

Most of the European countries showed negative results, with positive exceptions being Poland and Turkey that have managed to increase their volume (m2) respectively by 3.2% and 1.8%.The number of plants in Europe remained stable, decreasing by only 0.7% to 692 plants. Personnel decreased by -3.2% to 88,000 people employed in 2009 by the industry.

The detailed statistics are available for download at: www.fefco.org/publications/statistics.html.

For more information, contact Angelika Christ, Secretary General, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..