UPM Biofore Magazine 1-2019

TEXT Ni Xiao Hong   PHOTOGRAPHY VCG via Getty Images

adjacent store, and customers are able to make payments through a mobile app for in-store purchases. As these and other countless examples show, when it comes to digitalisation, China is leading the world into a whole new era of shopping. Packaging e-volution According to China’s State Post Bureau, the number of parcels delivered annually in China has increased by 10 billion over the past three years. In 2018, over 50 billion packages were delivered across China by express delivery. As many as one billion packages were delivered solely after the “Singles Day” shopping festival last year. The e-commerce boom in China has had a tremendous impact on the demand for label and packaging materials. Alongside the use of advanced technologies, artificial intelligence and cloud computing, sophisticated labels are also needed to ensure high efficiency in handling the enormous volume of parcels. Tailor-made to market demand UPM is the global market leader in both labelling materials and glassine release liners, which are used for labels, stickers, tapes as well as other packaging, production, and logistics applications. “About half of global glassine demand growth comes fromAsia, and China alone accounts for about one third of global growth. There is opportunity for us to be part of this growth,” says Ali Malassu , Director, Business development & Intelligence, Specialty Papers, APAC. After the successful startup of paper machine 3 at its Changshu mill, UPM decided to further increase its release liner capacity last year by installing a second supercalender at the mill. Valued at EUR 33 million, the investment will increase the mill’s

BIGGEST ONLINE SHOPPING FEST ON EARTH

Singles Day, also called Double-11, is China’s biggest online shopping festival, which takes place every year on 11 November. The festival was originally launched by e-commerce giant Alibaba in 2009 but has expanded to most other retailers. Alibaba Group set a new world record last Singles Day by generating EUR 25 billion in sales in just 24 hours, up 27% from the previous year, with one billion packages delivered and 180,000 brands taking part. The one-day buying frenzy was bigger than the U.S. online sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. For added perspective, Finland’s national budget for 2019 is EUR 55.3 billion. The impact of Singles Day extends far beyond China’s borders. About 19,000 foreign brands from 75 countries and regions participated in this shopping festival, including shops in Japan and big supermarket chains from the UK and Finland. This one-day shopping event is just one small indication of how quickly the e-commerce market in China is growing and how Chinese e-commerce giants are radically reshaping the global e-commerce landscape. 

THE ONE-DAY BUYING FRENZY on 11 November was bigger than the U.S. online sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.

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