The European corrugated-board market is valued at approximately SEK 230bn and generates annual growth of 2-3% over a business cycle. The market in Europe is fragmented; SCA is the second-largest player in Europe, with a market share of 10%.
Demand for consumer-goods packaging is stable and follows consumption trends. Growth in transport packaging is sensitive to economic movements and varies depending on trends in the trade and manufacturing industries.
The European corrugated-board market declined sharply as a result of the economic downturn in 2009. High producer inventory levels of containerboard and low demand led to price pressure during the year. At many producers, including SCA, extensive production downtime was used to balance the offering of containerboard with declining demand. Towards the end of the year, inventory levels were better balanced and price increases for containerboard could be carried out. However, the price of testliner remained about 20% below the average price in 2008, at the same time as the price of recovered paper increased significantly in 2009.
Table
SCA sales of Packaging by product segment 2009 | Percent |
|---|
| 70 |
|---|
| 18 |
|---|
| 3 |
|---|
Service | 6 |
|---|
Industrial packaging | 3 |
|---|
Graph
SCA sales of Packaging by product segment 2009
Table
SCA sales of Packaging by region 2009 | Percent |
|---|
Europe | 90 |
|---|
Asia | 9 |
|---|
Other | 1 |
|---|
Graph
SCA sales of Packgaging by region 2009
