In 2020, the amount of packaging paper, wrapping paper and paperboard shipped to China surged to 892K tonnes, jumping by +54 percent on the previous year. In value terms, wrapping papers imports skyrocketed by +17.1 percent YOY USD 627 million (IndexBox estimates) in 2020.
August 24, 2021
According to a report published by IndexBox — China’s imports of packaging paper, wrapping paper, and paperboard surged to their highest level ever, picking up by +54 percent to 892K tonnes in 2020. India, Vietnam and Russia are some of the largest suppliers to China. Moreover, last year, India and Russia had boosted their exports to China threefold, whereas Vietnam saw a 58 percent spike in terms of volume of exported products to China. In 2020, the average wrapping paper import price dropped by -24.1 percent YOY.
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The overall imports of packaging paper, wrapping paper and paperboard to China jumped from 350K tonnes in 2010 to 892K tonnes in 2020. Over the last decade, India recorded the most prominent growth rate of exports to China. India broke into the Chinese market and became the second-largest supplier, ramping up the supplies to China from 16K tonnes in 2017 to 100K tonnes in 2020.
According to the reports — Russia (125K tonnes), India (100K tonnes) and Viet Nam (77K tonnes) were the main suppliers of wrapping papers imports to China, together accounting for 34 percent of total imports. Canada, Japan, the U.S., Sweden, South Korea, Taiwan (Chinese), Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand straggled somewhat behind, together comprising a further 52 percent.
In 2020, Brazil featured the highest growth rate in terms of volume of supplies to China. Over the last year, Chinese purchases from Brazil increased from 7K tonnes to 42K tonnes.
Russia and India boosted their supplies to China threefold. Russia increased its exports to China from 41K tonnes in 2019 to 125K tonnes in 2020, while India ramped up its supplies to China from 34K tonnes to 100K tonnes over this period. Viet Nam increased its exports to China by half from 49K tonnes in 2019.
In value terms, Russia (USD 75 million), Japan (USD 68 million) and the U.S. (USD 58 million) appeared to be the largest wrapping papers suppliers to China, together comprising 32 percent of total imports. Sweden, Taiwan (Chinese), Canada, South Korea, India, Viet Nam, Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand lagged somewhat behind, together comprising a further 47 percent.
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In 2020, the average wrapping papers import price amounted to USD 703 per tonne, dropping by -24.1 percent against the previous year. There were significant differences in the average prices amongst the major supplying countries. In 2020, the country with the highest price was Japan ( USD 981 per tonne), while the price for India (USD 323 per tonne) was amongst the lowest. In 2020, the most notable rate of growth in terms of prices was attained by Taiwan (Chinese), while the prices for the other major suppliers experienced a decline.
