Innovation in post-Covid can technology
Benison shrink sleeves on beer cans. Image: Benison
Jens Kastner and Keith Nuthall report on the Taiwanese Taipei Pack trade show
The metal packaging sector in Taiwan has been building a sustainable future, with solid growth since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, can makers and fillers told CanTech International at the Taipei Pack trade show in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei.
Several of the 181 Taiwanese exhibitors of packaging machines and packaging innovations attending the event on 645 booths, said that 2023 was an excellent sales year, as demand fully recovered from the pandemic.
Taipei Pack, the Taiwan Packaging Association (TPA), reported at the event, (which took place from 26 to 29 June), that Taiwan is home to more than 1,000 factories that make either packaging or packaging machines. Demand for the latter is driven by labour shortages both in Taiwan and its export markets. According to the TPA, demand for Taiwanese companies is expanding for connection lines that seamlessly link food processing machinery with packaging machines, providing factory owners with turnkey solutions that save labour costs and enhance food safety.
“During Covid, our inventory was very high, as workers at our customers’ factories stayed home over fear of infection, but in 2023, we saw orders fully returning,” said OB Chen, general manager of Taichung-based Chang Shen Machinery, a manufacturer of equipment for can making, beverage and food can seaming, and beverage and soup filling. “Indeed, it was an exceptionally strong sales year for us, as more customers appreciate the high quality of our machines due to the usage of the best stainless-steel types and branded screws and bearings, as well as our strong aftersales services,” he told CanTech International.
Chang Shen Machinery presented its newest machine, the Rotary Vacuum Filler CS014301, for liquid and semi-liquid filling of round or non-round metal, glass, and plastics containers. Its capacity is 250 to 300 cans per minute. It also promoted its CS03308R high speed necking, flanging and beading machine for round tin cans of heights between 85mm to 180mm, as well as its CS022060 automatic double seamer for powdered milk cans sold in round tin can and aluminium can models.
Chen added that, whereas Taiwanese consumers on the 23.5 million population island tend to favour Tetra Pak-like carton packages, which mainly contain food and beverage products with ten to 20 days shelf life, many of their counterparts in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Mexico, and China are happier with tin cans that allow for shelf life of up to two years.
“For fruit juices, energy drinks, tomato sauces and their likes, metal cans are better also than PET bottles, given that they shield the filling from sunlight,” said Chen. Other metal packaging machines sold by the company include its CS03206B automatic vertical flanging and beading equipment; its CS03108N vertical necking plant; and its CS011441 automatic filler and seamer.
Can making machine. Image: Chang Shen Machinery
Taipei-based Benison, a manufacturer and exporter of polyolefin (POF), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), oriented Polystyrene (OPS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polylactic acid (PLA) heat shrink film and auto-packaging machinery, used the Taipei Pack to showcase its heat tunnels specially for shrink sleeves. In Taiwan, shrink sleeves are enjoying increasing popularity for beer cans, especially for flavoured beer types that are only sold temporarily during the hot summer months.
“In the past, our customers had to print on the cans, which led to very large MOQ (minimum order quantity) and the associated waste of warehouse space, but the shift to shrink sleeve is now allowing for small batch production,” said Erica HM Huang, a Benison export manager. “Since last year, our sales of shrink sleeve technology have been growing strongly, as more customers settled for small batch production with the many design options that are facilitated by shrink sleeve.”
In a note released for the expo, Benison said it aimed to help clients achieve circular economy goals: “Benison is actively committed to sustainable practices by offering a variety of environmentally friendly packaging materials and intelligent application models.” The company has been proactive in seeking export markets, in the past month hosting commercial visitors from Paraguay, Guatemala, Belize and Iran.
Other shrink sleeve suppliers in Taiwan include Kaohsiung City-based AllenPack, which offers PVC blown and PVC cast printed shrink sleeves and labels. At Taipei Pack, it was promoting its Horizontal Shrink Sleeving Machine, as an easy to adjust/operate and stable system, which is suitable for containers that are difficult to stand and small.
Additionally, Taipei-based Chia Hsiang Fa Enterprises, said in a note that its sleeve films “are measured precisely to fit closely for any plastic, glass, or metal container,” using PVC, PET, OPS, PLA and more, with thickness (generally 35-50 microns) for packs, caps, or full-body, 360-degree coverage.
The Taipei Pack expo also showed that New Taipei City-based SinLeTai, a developer and manufacturer of inkjet printers, is riding high on growing demand for labelling, decorating, and coding machines, which is driven by legislation, particularly in the food and beverage segments. SinLeTai’s inkjet journey began in 2005 when securing a technology license from California-based notebook and printer giant, HP. This year, SinLeTai launched a print controller that can simultaneously support four different production lines, keeping the acquisition costs down, while making it easier to control the production process. At Taipei Pack, SinLeTai also presented a novel handheld printer that printed date labels and company logos on an aluminium can, with impressive convenience and accuracy.
“We have been focused on Japan, [South] Korea, Thailand and China and recently found a major German partner, but our strongest new focus market is India, as there is a rapidly growing pharma industry in that country,” said Eric Chou, a sales representative of SinLeTai.
“At the 2023 Interpack in Germany, we managed to win India-based coding and marking equipment manufacturer, Control Print, as a new big OEM customer, and we have sold 100 ink jet printers in just three months in India..” The company sells thermal inkjet and piezo inkjet variable data printers, and ink solutions to its clients.
SinLeTai presents a handheld ink jet printer at the Taipei expo which is also suitable for metal cans. Image: Jens Kastner
Other innovative companies exhibiting at the event included New Taipei City-based Santa Press, which promoted its metallic foil paper box with full-colour printing, which it said in an expo note was “a strategic choice that effectively catches the eye of potential when walking by [on] today’s oversaturated retail shelves.”
New Taipei City-based Kentex Packing Machinery promoted its Tube Filling & Sealing Machine for aluminium, saying it offered smooth operation and fast production speed, with stable and accurate filling and easy replacement of different tube sizes. A Kentex note said the technology is appropriate for filling with various cosmetics and sauces. These innovations were shown to 42,053 overseas visitors, who attended the show and its parallel expos Food Taipei, Foodtech Taipei, Bio/ Pharmatech Taiwan and Taiwan HORECA.
Visitors were from the top ten countries of Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea, Philippines, United States, Thailand, Singapore, mainland China and Indonesia.
Domestically, Taiwan’s developed economy offers significant market potential for can makers, can machine manufacturers and fillers, with GDP per head at US$34,430, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Indeed, according to Germany-based business data service Statista, revenue in the Taiwanese food market will be $54.59 billion in 2024, with the market is expected to grow annually by a compound annual growth rate of 3.85 per cent between 2024 and 2029.
Taiwan has important can makers beyond those present at the show. For instance, Taipei and Tanpan-based FountainCan Corp makes aluminium cans for beers and other beverages, making cans and ends. Another is Tainan-based Ton Yi Industrial Corp, which produces cans and tinplate, and has recently acquired a halal certificate for its products. Also, Taiwan Supreme Metal & Taiwan Supreme Metal Packaging, based in Hsinchu County, Taiwan, makes moulding-in-one aluminium containers, including sleek can and standard can products, suitable for carbonated drinks, including beer and soda, lactic acid products and tea products with high temperature sterilisation.
Benker PC Liao, chairman of the TPA, said, “Taiwan is strong in both software and hardware needed for automation, and although we sometimes struggle to compete against Japan or China for standard packaging machinery solutions, we are more flexible and easier to communicate with, and our prices are reasonable.”
Looking ahead to a sustainable future for the island industry, he said, “In response to the green transformation, the packaging sector will reduce the usage of materials, facilitate improved recyclability of materials, and double down on developing intelligent packaging equipment that harnesses artificial intelligence.”
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