FFI flash survey: customers' forecasts could calm down tense supply situation with cartonboard calm down
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The current supply situation, or rather the exorbitantly long delivery times for cartonboard are likely to persist for some time to come, as the FFI has deduces from a recent flash survey. Customers can make a significant contribution to easing the situation by optimizing their forecasts of the required packaging quantity. "We see appropriate communication from the respective market partners as crucial to calming the out-of-step the supply chain, which is out of sync, by providing the actual current and future folding carton requirements of customers with the capacities of raw materials. with raw material capacities," states Andreas Helbig, Spokesman of the FFI Board of Directors. However, external factors such as the volatility in recovered paper supply, the development of energy costs and the general energy costs or the general upward trend in prices. Nevertheless, the supply chain for folding cartons made from natural, renewable and certified sustainable raw material source wood or from recycled recovered paper, is resilient.
ORDER RANGE FOR FOLDING CARTONS AND DELIVERY TIMES FOR CARTONBOARD
SIGNIFICANTLY EXTENDED
The FFI flash survey shows, among other things, a currently significantly extended range of the folding carton manufacturers' own order backlog compared to the beginning of 2021. Currently, the average order backlog is sufficient for a production of eleven weeks. This compares with delivery times for for virgin fiber or recycled cartonboard, which in some cases are considerably longer. even longer. In several rounds of price increases, the costs for virgin fiber-based for virgin fiber cartonboard increased by between 10 and 20%, and for recycled cartonboard by more than for more than two thirds of the 36 folding carton manufacturers participating in the FFI survey. by more than 20 %. Striking, but partly understandable against this background, are the developments of their own inventories. More than half of the companies report of the companies report an increase or strong increase in their inventories of raw materials. Solutions to the distortions in the supply chain are seen primarily in improved communication and pragmatic planning of realistic requirements for carton realistic requirements for cartonboard and folding cartons.
