The Interpack trade fair has been held in Dusseldorf since 1958 and is the world’s largest platform to exhibit equipment and services of the packaging and related industries.

Interpack 2017 was notable for a closer attention to the environmental and recycling issues. It was a landmark event for Russia, which for the first time had a dedicated pavilion for the country's equipment manufacturers. Among other things, they showcased new solutions for dairy packaging, state-of-the-art concepts in PET packaging design and innovations in the field of breakables packaging. At Interpack, SIBUR was represented by BIAXPLEN, a leading Russian manufacturer of biaxially-oriented polypropylene (BOPP) film.

The RosUpack exhibition was held in Moscow in June. It is the largest trade show for the packaging industry in Russia and Eastern Europe with a 20-year history. RosUpack 2017 boasted impressive attendance. This indicates not only the success of the event itself, but also the growth of the Russian packaging market and the greater interest it stirs up among both local and international players.

Interpack-2017. Photo: Messe Düsseldorf/ctillmann

Judging by the participants’ inputs, the market has developed some clear trends. E-commerce is becoming an increasingly important factor, with companies adapting its packaging for online sales. Other drivers include better quality and functionality of packaging materials, their higher utility to buyers. The usual buy-product – use-product – discard-packaging pattern is rapidly losing its popularity. Consumers expect the packaging to be interactive, bring surprises and positive emotions. As a response, RosUpack participants came up with various ideas, for instance, holographic solutions to make the packaging look more attractive and enable counterfeit protection. In addition, public awareness as regards packaging materials has started to influence the perception of products and brands.

According to one of RosUpack participants, Sergey Anisimov, CEO of Evropac, the past several years were rather challenging for the business due to the unfavourable economic environment. However, the market is now showing signs of recovery, and new products help attract and retain customers. For this company, the solution was a film wrapper for vegetables extending their shelf life.

The RosUpack exhibition is the largest trade show for the packaging industry in Russia and Eastern Europe.

“We are developing a technology for producing perforated stretch films to transport live plants. Overall, the demand for our products is on the upside, leaving us some room for a slight price increase,” said Sergey Anisimov, attributing sales growth to both in-house solutions and cooperation with feedstock suppliers. “Our key product is polyethylene food wrap, where we utilise SIBUR’s LDPE. We are closely monitoring the company’s assortment. For example, we have already started to use their recently released product, polyethylene with improved properties. We are really happy about the growing quality of SIBUR’s polymers, which translates into better characteristics of our films, for instance, their transparency,” he said.

At RosUpack 2017, SIBUR was again represented by BIAXPLEN. “During the trade show, our team interacted with current and prospective clients and also provided extensive consultations to potential newcomers to the market, sharing information on BOPP film types and current market environment in general, as well as on SIBUR and BIAXPLEN,” said Karina Mkrtycheva, Senior BOPP Expert at BIAXPLEN.

According to her, adding to SIBUR’s competitive edge (as seen by customers in this market) is the stability of a vertically integrated company and the availability of own feedstock. As to the quality of products, among key criteria the exhibition visitors highlighted functionality, including reusability of packaging, transparency of its sides and extended shelf life of packaged products.

At RosUpack 2017, SIBUR was again represented by BIAXPLEN.

Both trade fairs saw SIBUR presenting the full range of its BOPP films, including one of BIAXPLEN’s latest innovations, HASL, an improved antifog film, which SIBUR to Clients wrote about in one of its previous issues.

“For SIBUR, the bottom line of participating in Interpack and RosUpack is as follows: the company is right to focus on developing new complex films because these were the products that caught the strongest interest of the public,” said Karina Mkrtycheva.

SIBUR will take part at the following exhibitions and conferences:

• Tire Technology Expo, Hannover (Germany), 20-22 February 2018.
• Chinaplas, Shanghai (China), 24-27 April 2018.

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