The U.S. paperboard box and container market supply is flattening, according to a recent market research report from Specialists in Business Information (SBI), a division of MarketResearch.com. At $42 billion in 2005, Paperboard Boxes/Containers in the U.S. projects that market supply will continue to see only minimal annual increases in value, reaching $45 billion in 2010.

Not surprisingly, corrugated and solid fiber boxes continue to make up the lion's share of the market. Positive economic conditions, such as increased consumer spending and increased GDP in 2004, helped breathe life into this sector as well as the folding paperboard boxes and fiber cans and drums sectors.

Corrugated is a durable, versatile material used for custom-manufactured shipping containers, packaging and point-of-purchase displays, in addition to numerous non-traditional applications ranging from pallets to furniture to children's toys. According to SBI's Paperboard Boxes/Containers report, end-use sectors such as pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, and especially electronics, where demand for paperboard packaging applications will continue to increase, remain strong market drivers, reports Material Handling Management.

One place corrugated wants to make its presence known is on the worldwide retail floor. Heather Marshall, president of the International Corrugated Case Association (ICCA), recently told Packaging-Online, "While retail-ready packages have yet to really catch on in places like South America and Southeast Asia, in the U.S. and Europe it is one of the areas with the strongest potential for growth.

Marshall continued:

Retailers are dictating that the primary package also be the package the customer sees on the shelf. They want easy-to-handle and easy-open boxes. They want high-end graphics. In short, they want corrugated to do it all.

Though corrugated and folding carton designs have always had separate forms and functions, new structural designs and printing technologies have "blurred the boundaries separating them," says Packaging-Online's 2006 paperboard packaging "State of the Industry: Age of Reinvention."

For instance, there has been significant improvement regarding direct print on corrugated. Steve Purwitsky, executive director of the Canadian Corrugated Case Association, said in the "Age of Reinvention" report that "improving on those improvements will contribute mightily to the value corrugated converters add to their products."

"The biggest opportunities are much lighter flutes with the needed strength," he says. "You can print color graphics more effectively on corrugated than before and that's opening advertising opportunities for retailers that they never had before. The technology to print on boxes is phenomenal and a lot cheaper than ever before."

As for food companies using corrugated boxes, they could be paying less for packaging "if suppliers took greater care to protect the key material during manufacturing," according to an Australian research firm's claims.

XQ innovations says that processes such as printing and cutting corrugated card applies pressure and can damage the shear resistance of the material, reducing its strength and efficiency when it comes to packing produce or other goods.

AP-Foodtechnology.com reports:

While some companies test the strength of the board by taking samples to the lab, XQ innovations has created a transportable tool that releases vibrations into the card. The frequency of vibrations is proportional to the shear stiffness.

"It's a way of getting to the shear stiffness without having to cut up the card," technical director Russell Allan explained. "You can just walk up to the board and test it."

The firm's research suggests that when paper leaves a corrugator, it has lost an average 56 percent of stiffness, and a box made from the card is 20 percent to 30 percent weaker. This increases costs for the packaging's end users, especially those requiring heavy-duty boxes.

"When a box fails, the supplier will add more paper and weight, making it more expensive," Allan told AP-Foodtechnology.com.

This technology could come in handy particularly as Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, said in September that it would push its suppliers to cut the amount of packaging used by 5 percent from 2008. The retailer, which has 60,000 suppliers, said it would recognize those suppliers who used less packaging and more effective materials.

In March, the ICCA forecasted corrugated output to grow at an annual average rate of 4.0 percent over the next five years.