Introduction of tobacco packaging materials and market development trends

Tobacco is a special product, and its packaging material is not arbitrary. A good packaging material can not only reflect the quality of cigarettes, but also make consumers feel satisfied when buying. Therefore, it is very important to choose tobacco packaging materials. of.

1. Cigarette paper

As a special kind of paper, cigarette paper occupies a higher position in tissue paper, and at the same time, as a cigarette material, it also occupies a place in the tobacco industry. Cigarette paper for machine-made cigarettes is called cigarette reel paper, and cigarette paper for hand-rolled cigarettes is called flat cigarette paper. The production technology of cigarette paper has its particularity and is very difficult. Only a few countries in the world can produce it. At present, the global cigarette paper consumption is about 300,000 tons, of which one third is produced in China, and the other 200,000 tons are produced in France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Japan, Indonesia, the United States and other places.

The world's number one cigarette paper manufacturer is Schweitzer-Mauduit in France, and the second is Trierenberg Group in Austria. These two companies occupy an important position in global cigarette paper production. Schweitzer-Mauduit has an annual output of more than 70,000 tons, accounting for 23% of the global share; Trierenberg Group has an annual output of about 50,000 tons, accounting for 16% of the global share. The production capacity and scale of other cigarette paper manufacturers in the world are relatively small, such as Ecosta in the United States, Schoeller & Hoesch, Glantz in Germany, Robert Fletcher in the United Kingdom, and companies in Italy, Spain, Indonesia and other countries. The total output remains at August 1 The level of 100,000 tons.

The top five cigarette paper manufacturers in China are: Yunnan Hongta Lanying Paper, Sichuan Jinfeng Paper, Hangzhou Huafeng Paper, Jiaxing Minfeng Paper and Mudanjiang Hengfeng Paper. In the 1990s, there were 7 cigarette paper manufacturers in China. From 1992 to the present, China has transformed and introduced 20 cigarette paper production lines in a total of 10 years. The level of equipment, automatic control capabilities, and production The scale and product quality have reached the highest level in the world today, and the national production capacity of high-end cigarette paper has reached 89,000 tons.

At present, international cigarette paper manufacturing enterprises have successively expanded their production scale, and the medium and low-end cigarette paper market has appeared oversupply; market competition is becoming more and more fierce, and it is an inevitable trend for the international market to alleviate excess capacity. In 2020, China imported 30,800 tons of high-end cigarette paper and exported 17,000 tons of cigarette paper.

2. Tin foil paper

       As a packaging material, tin foil has mainly played a role in improving barrier properties, shading, dustproof, antibacterial and packaging machinery adaptability. The use of tin foil in cigarette packaging is mainly to take advantage of its moisture-proof, fragrance-preserving, moisturizing and aesthetic properties. Aluminum foil paper has very good protective properties. The tin foil cigarette case hardly absorbs any aroma substances, and other materials such as metal-plated (coated) paper or printing paper cannot achieve similar quality and the ability to protect aroma. In addition, aluminum foil as the inner liner of cigarette packaging has good fluidity on the packaging machine, and can maintain high production efficiency even on the fastest machine.

    Tin foil can be divided into hard, soft, non-lustrous, and patterned. Cigarette aluminum foil is mostly single-sided glossy, embossed, and soft foil with lining paper. Some cigarette foil paper also has special specifications such as tin foil printing gold and lining paper printing.

    The international cigarette industry usually uses composite aluminum foil paper and sprayed tin foil paper. At present, the tobacco industry mainly uses composite aluminum foil paper, accounting for about 70%, and the remaining 30% uses sprayed foil. The technical level of high-quality aluminum foil paper produced by European and American companies is quite high, but the overall quality of Chinese tinfoil paper still has a certain gap with international standards.

     With the continuous increase in the variety of cigarettes in the international tobacco industry and the continuous improvement of cigarette grades, the quality requirements for tinfoil paper are constantly increasing. Special specifications and special requirements of cigarette aluminum foil paper (such as tin foil printing gold, liner printing, etc.) Occupies a large proportion of market demand.

3. Tipping paper

Tipping paper is a cigarette packaging material used as the outer packaging of filter cigarette tip sticks, and belongs to special industrial paper. It is named after its appearance similar to pine wood grain. The tipping paper is in direct contact with the lips of the smoker, so the printing ink and coating of the tipping paper must be non-toxic, meet food hygiene standards, and have a certain degree of water resistance and wet strength. According to different processing techniques, tipping paper is divided into two categories: printing tipping paper and coating tipping paper. The printing type tipping paper is printed by the gravure printing process, with beautiful surface, good leveling, and high technical requirements, suitable for medium and high-end cigarettes; the coating type tipping paper is processed by the coating process, and the process is simple. The surface pattern quality and leveling properties are worse than printed tipping paper, and it is often used for low-grade cigarettes.

     The use of tipping paper in tobacco plants is not limited to packaging, but more attention to its decorative properties, and has higher requirements for the printing aesthetics of tipping paper. Tipping paper has developed from a single single-color product to a multi-color product, and the proportion of multi-color products has been increasing year by year. In terms of varieties, printing tipping paper has surpassed the market share of coated tipping paper. With the increasing demand for cigarette health and environmental protection, as one of the important means to reduce tar content and reduce the harm of smoking, static electricity and laser perforated tipping paper have developed rapidly, especially laser perforated tipping paper has become an important development direction in the future. In addition, tipping paper is also used by some cigarette factories as an anti-counterfeiting technology for cigarette anti-counterfeiting.

4. BOPP smoke film

Cigarette packaging film is abbreviated as cigarette film, which is a high-grade BOPP film. Compared with ordinary packaging films, cigarette film has the characteristics of lower heat sealing temperature, better barrier performance, high transparency, and uniform thickness. The development trend of smoke film is rigid and thin, high gloss, high stiffness, high antistatic level, wide heat sealing temperature, low haze, low friction coefficient, and consistent shrinkage in both horizontal and vertical directions.

Cigarette film can be divided into strips and small packages according to the packaging. There are three types of cigarette films currently produced in China: heat-shrinkable, tolerant and high-speed. The heat shrinkable cigarette film is mainly used for the packaging of high-end cigarettes; the tolerant cigarette film is suitable for various types of cigarette packaging machines; the high-speed cigarette film is especially used for high-speed cigarette packaging machines.

The tobacco industry is one of the major users of BOPP film, and the total international demand for tobacco film is 600-800,000 tons per year. The main products are the United States, Britain, India, Japan and China. In 2019, the output of BOPP tobacco film was as high as 800,000 tons, which basically met the demand in quantity, but the quality of tobacco film produced in some countries was not satisfactory, especially not suitable for the high-speed packaging requirements of small packages.

4. White cardboard

In the international market, there is a huge demand for white cardboard for tobacco packaging, of which white cardboard used for cigarette packaging accounts for a considerable proportion. With the development of cigarette packaging from soft box packaging (using coated paper) to hard box packaging (using white cardboard), the demand for cigarette white cardboard continues to rise.

At present, white cardboard occupies a considerable market share in the domestic market. Because white cardboard is high-value paper (generally the normal price is USD950-1100/MT), white cardboard does not have a certain price advantage.

5. Coated paper

   Cigarette soft box packaging is one of the main markets for coated paper. The growth of the market demand for coated paper began in the 1980s. In the early 1990s, high-end coated paper could not be produced due to technology, equipment, and raw materials. Before 1995, the market for high-end coated paper was monopolized by Japan. After 1995, Korean coated paper entered the international market in large quantities. After a price war, Korean coated paper replaced the monopoly of Japanese coated paper. In the past few years, due to the dumping of the Korean coated paper market, the international coated paper production enterprises faced tremendous pressure to survive. With the anti-dumping of coated paper, enterprises have begun a new round of market competition.