Market Overview

The sack kraft paper market was valued at USD 33.71?billion in 2019?and is forecasted to reach USD 41.3?billion by the end of 2025, at a CAGR of 4.04%, during the forecast period of 2020-2025. Factors, such as porosity, durability, extensibility, printability, coupled with strength equal to plastic or synthetic materials are also expected to aid the growth of the market over the forecast period.

  • The growing awareness among environmentalists and governments about the hazards of using plastic is forcing them to focus on greener alternatives, which is favoring the adoption of sack kraft paper. A steady rise in demand in the construction industry, owing to infrastructure projects, has contributed to the increase in the use of sack kraft paper. Recycling remains one of the major trends observed in these industries. The volume demand for recycled paper is expected to grow to 1.5 million metric tons by the end of 2018, which is expected to support the overall market growth.
  • Furthermore, the extensive ban on plastic materials in developed countries such as the US has aided the market. In April 2019, New York introduced a law that made a statewide ban on single-use plastic bags. It is estimated that New York uses 23 billion plastic bags every year with 50% of these plastic bags end up in landfills and around the city and waterways. The after use handling expense for a cleaning and disposing them remains high, pushing for similar action in other regions.
  • Sacks filled with powdered materials, such as gypsum, cement, fine-grained sugar, clays, etc., which are required for papers with high quality, is also aiding the market growth exponentially. The sack also exposes to less strain during filling, leading to a lower sack breakage which increases its adoption in the cement industry.
  • The Tensile Energy Absorption (TEA) values of sack papers have been improved and increased owing to intensive research and development work during the past decade. The 2x70 g/sq. m sack is standard in many countries, such as the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and China.
  • The increasing popularity of e-commerce and the related developments have led to the premiumization of kraft packaging. This includes the demand for kraft material which can take high-quality graphics on short print runs. Companies like Mondi have been keeping up with such developments and have developed a new product that targets premium creative print and packaging applications, including shopping bags.
  • However, a new capacity of sack kraft is being added to the market to address the supply-demand gap, majorly contributed by increased/restarting production, investment in new machinery and acquisitions. For instance, Segezha, a European-based vendor acquired a new PM11 paper machine in October 2017. A prominent acquisition includes the acquisition of KapStone by Westrock Company.
  • However, the emergence of alternatives, such as plastic materials and flexible intermediate bulk containers and bulk bags, rice in prices of sack kraft paper may hinder the growth of the market.



Scope of the Report

Wood pulp for sack paper is made from softwood by the kraft process. The long fibers provide the paper its strength and wet strength chemicals are added to even further improve the strength. Both white and brown grades are made. Sack paper is then produced on a paper machine from the wood pulp. Sack kraft paper is used for packaging products and is used in various industries, such as cement, food, agriculture, chemical, and many more. Sack craft is made out of kraft paper, which, in turn, is manufactured from paper or paperboard made of wood pulp and is in the scope of the study. Sack craft has high tensile energy absorption (TEA), high stiffness, high porosity and excellent printability as compared to conventional packaging materials.

Key Market Trends

Food is Estimated to Have Significant Share in the Market

  • Sack kraft paper is mainly used to transport food products, such as flour, sugar, starch, food additives, processed or dried fruit, eggs, or milk, etc. Mostly used in the form of open mouth or valve sacks, the sack kraft for food packaging contains two to three layers of paper and is often combined with a polyethylene (PE) free film tube inliner and/or coated paper.
  • The consumer’s preference along with the green regulations from the FDA across the regions also promotes sack kraft packaging in the food industry. The European paper sack and sack kraft paper industry have contributed many developments that make paper sacks the perfect packaging for food. According to Paper Shipping Sack Manufacturers’ Association (PSSMA), paper shipping sack and consumer bag used in the food industry have emerged into billion dollar industry with shipments of over three billion sacks annually.
  • The PSSMA estimates that over 27 million sacks produced in 2018 by its member companies were printed with the special recycling emblem, which was developed to encourage the end-user recovery of qualified paper shipping sacks with corrugated.
  • Additionally, according to the study conducted by EcoFocus, a green and sustainability consumer company in 2018, more shoppers are choosing stores based on their offerings of healthy and environmentally friendly selections. According to the survey, 67% of the responding grocery shoppers agreed that retailers choose products based on environment-friendly packaging.
  • Increase in popularity of quick-service restaurants among urban youth along with government regulations imposed for plastic bans is also increasing the production of sack packing paper and thereby their usage in food and beverage industry.



Europe has Significant Share in the Market

In Europe, the demand for sack kraft paper has increased owing to the increase in construction activities coupled with the increasing awareness of eco-friendly. Durable packaging has aided the market to regain growth. For instance, in 2018, the demand for sack kraft paper in Germany exceeded supply owing to factors, such as orders placed by new customers or additional amounts going beyond existing contracts.

CEPI Eurokraft, the European Association for Producers of Sack Kraft Paper has ten member companies representing a volume of around 3,0 Million tons of paper produced in 2017 in eleven countries in Europe which shows the increase in adoption of sack paper. It indicates the presence of a platform to share the market issue in the region and assist in standardizing the policies and create an informed channel of distribution. EUROSAC Statistics identified building materials except for cement and milk powder as the strongest growth areas in this region

The food sector is one of the areas in which the European paper sack industry is projected to show its commitment to customer needs over the forecast period. there are challenges in dairy and cocoa industry and drives the vendors in the region to reach such a platform. For individual packaging needs, major international companies are investing heavily in the sack paper kraft R&D activities and establishing new warehouses to cater to the increasing demand. For instance, HeidelbergCement showed strong market in southern and eastern Europe in 2018 as in Poland, growth rates were up by 20% and in Spain by 18%. The UK and Russia are estimated to be a slow growth market as saturation is approaching

Companies in the region are involved in capacity expansion to strategically improve their business opportunity. For instance, Mariinsky Pulp and Paper Mill, a prominent Russian supplier of sack paper, including other paper products is investing in modernizing the existing refining process (two-stage, low-consistency). Segezha Group similarly is investing in modernization and expects to increase the sack kraft paper production to 450,000 metric ton per year by 2021.

Competitive Landscape

The sack kraft paper market is a relatively fragmented market that consists of a large volume of players, including Mondi, Nordic Paper, Segezha, among others, which have the capability to cut out co-packers in the market. Further, the presence of the players’ distribution channel and access to raw material impacts the competition in the regional market. Vertical integration which means raw material suppliers being acquired by converters/packaging companies has been a continued trend since the past couple of years.

  • March 2019 - WestRock Company provider of differentiated paper and packaging solutions expanded its portfolio of automated packaging system offerings with the acquisition of Linkx Packaging Systems.
  • June 2018 - Mondi was recognized for its innovation in e-commerce packing. The companies MailerBAG which is made of sack kraft paper services as an alternative to non-recyclable plastic mailer bags. MailerBAG won the Eurosac Grand Prix at the 2018Euro science Congress in Malta.



Reasons to Purchase this report:

  • The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
  • Report customization as per the client’s requirements
  • 3 months of analyst support