China's packaging equipment manufacturing industry chain has formed a complete system

After years of development, China's packaging equipment manufacturing industry chain has formed a complete system covering upstream raw materials and parts, midstream equipment manufacturing, downstream application fields and services, with both scale effect and technology upgrade potential. The following analysis is carried out from the aspects of industry chain structure, core links, competition pattern and development trend:

I. Overall structure of the industry chain

1. Upstream: raw materials and core parts

- Raw materials:

Mainly include basic materials such as steel, aluminum alloy, engineering plastics, and raw materials required for production equipment of packaging materials (such as film, carton, label paper). In recent years, the demand for lightweight and environmentally friendly materials (such as degradable plastics) has increased, driving upstream material suppliers to transform towards green.

- Core parts:

- Mechanical parts: transmission system (gears, bearings), servo motors, cylinders, molds, etc. Some high-end parts (such as high-precision servo motors, smart sensors) still rely on imports (such as Siemens, Germany, Omron, Japan).

- Electronic and control systems: PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), Human-Machine Interface (HMI), Industrial Robots (such as Palletizing Robots, Sorting Robots), Visual Inspection Systems (AI Quality Inspection Equipment), Internet of Things Modules (for equipment networking and data collection). Local enterprises have achieved localization in the field of low-end and mid-end parts (such as Huichuan Technology and Estun), but high-end precision parts still need to be imported.

2. Midstream: Core links of packaging equipment manufacturing

- Classification by equipment function:

- Front-end packaging equipment: filling machine (powder/liquid/granule), filling machine, sealing machine, labeling machine, wrapping machine (such as pillow and vertical packaging machines for food packaging).

- Back-end packaging equipment: cartoning machine, palletizing machine (mainly robot palletizing), wrapping machine, logistics sorting equipment (commonly used in e-commerce logistics).

- Integrated solutions: intelligent packaging production line (integrating the above equipment, with MES system to realize production data visualization), customized production line (such as aseptic filling line in the pharmaceutical industry, quick-frozen packaging line in the food industry).

- Segmentation by application field:

- Food and beverage: the highest proportion (about 40%), with demand concentrated on bottled water, dairy products, and snack food packaging.

- Pharmaceutical and daily chemicals: high requirements for equipment cleanliness and precision (such as pharmaceutical blister packaging machines, cosmetics vacuum filling machines).

- Industry and logistics: chemical product packaging (such as barrel/bag packaging equipment), automated sorting and packaging equipment for e-commerce express delivery (such as automatic labeling, weighing and scanning integrated machines).

3. Downstream: application fields and services

- Main application scenarios: food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, daily chemicals, chemicals, e-commerce logistics, electronic manufacturing and other industries, among which e-commerce logistics and new energy (such as lithium battery packaging) are the fastest growing areas in recent years.

- Service links: equipment installation and commissioning, operation and maintenance, technology upgrades (such as intelligent transformation of old production lines), after-sales response (some companies provide 24-hour remote diagnosis services).