Although there is a gradual increase in the number of CI-flexo presses in the Indian and South Asian flexible packaging industry, gravure continues to be its backbone, with more than ten times as many new presses being installed each year. While the majority of the gravure press installations are from Indian manufacturers, close to a half dozen high-speed machines from Bobst and W&H continue to be imported, and occasionally, a mid-web tobacco carton machine, including cutting and creasing, is also imported from manufacturers such as Bobst and the French DCM/ATN group.
There are several Indian manufacturers supplying high–speed automated gravure presses to the Indian market, and some, such as Pelican and Kohli Engineers, have become significant exporters. Other local manufacturers include UFlex, CTrivedi, and Mohindra. The annual total number of gravure press installations for flexible packaging in India is likely to be well over a hundred annually.
Indian gravure press manufacturers have evolved considerably with electronic line shafts, closed-loop monitoring, efficient curing systems and ovens, and higher speeds. They offer excellent value for money and have held their own against imports from China, according to industry experts. Buying a Chinese-made press has become difficult; firstly, the quality presses are no longer cheap, and spare parts, support, and service can be challenging in the current environment.
Pelican’s multiple offerings and export growth
Pelican’s large factory in Rajkot has doubled capacity, and in recent months, supplied a good number of ELS (electronic line shaft) gravure presses, such as a 9-color 450 meters a minute press to leading flexible packaging plants in India, including Balaji Multi-flex in Rajkot, an 8-color ELS press to Phoenix Flexibles an Amcor Group company in Ahmedabad, and a 9-color ELS press to Accumen Laminators in Kanpur. Another ELS 8-color press has gone to Suman Prints & Laminates in Kanpur.
Pelican’s shaft-driven gravure presses have been installed at Sudhir Print Pack in Jaipur, Dolphin Rotopack in Assam, Big Bags International in Karnataka, Oditech Packaging in Cuttack, and Subitex-Ameco India in Vadodara.
Exports to the Middle East and African countries of Pelican’s gravure presses continue to increase, with recent shipments of a 9-color MLS (mechanical line shaft) press for Malawi and an 8-color MLS for Ghana. These machines are rated at 300 meters per minute. Three Pelican shaftless gravure presses have been exported to the Middle East – an ELS 450 meters per minute 9-color press and a pair of ELS 8-color presses. An 8-color ELS gravure press has been exported to Kenya.
In addition, Pelican’s stack flexo presses, solvent-less and combination laminators, slitter-rewinders, and slitter-rewinders with inspection are finding markets in India, the Middle East, and Africa, including several installations in Nigeria. The company continues to show double-digit annual growth.
Gravure cylinder making
More than a dozen new gravure cylinder engravers continue to be imported annually from Hell Gravure Systems, which dominates the Indian and global markets. These are absorbed by the more than 100 engraving trade houses in the country and the large flexible packaging converters who produce their cylinders in-house. Although some of the new high-technology engravers and cylinder preparation systems are replacements for earlier technology machines, TCPL Packaging is setting up a greenfield state-of-the-art gravure engraving project in Silvassa.
Nevertheless, some of the trade houses we have spoken to feel that while gravure printing continues to grow, it has perhaps lost some of its upward momentum in the past couple of years in light of flat demand from the brand owners who seem to have cut back on frequent changes in designs and SKUs. The competition from CI, stack and label flexo presses, and in some cases, digital presses for short-run flexible packaging and smaller pouches has also increased. However, gravure still commands 90% of the growing market.
Nevertheless, it seems that annual growth has come down from double-digits to single digits. In addition, there has been a hypercompetitive pressure on prices and margins over the past two years, partly due to excess capacity built up after the Covid-19 pandemic and lower demand, which is reflected in the flat FMCG brands’ financial results.
In the current financial year, winds of change and green shoots are emerging, despite the short-term thinking of many of the brand owners’ management. Apart from the leading twenty consumer goods companies, most brand owners want the same quality as the leader in each segment but at a lower price, and for smaller quantities. This has led to unsustainable margins for packaging and cylinder suppliers as the costs of all inputs, including steel, copper, chemicals, inks, and solvents, have risen considerably in the past five years.
Sustainable packaging and industry sustainability
The global flexible packaging converters in the country are generally compelled to maintain their sustainability targets, and hence, they are looking at the regulations for gravure cylinder manufacturing, which are under discussion in Europe but still seem far away from commitment to investments in implementation and compliance. The current status of chromium trioxide use in gravure cylinder production is that until a decision is made by the European Commission regarding CTAC application, all users of chromium trioxide may continue to use the substance under the known CTAC authorization number REACH/20/18/7.
In any case, as shown at the Heliograph Holdings and Hell Gravure stand at drupa24, the alternative to chromium trioxide, HelioChromeNEO, which is ready for the market, uses non-toxic trivalent chromium and is also free from PFAS. Multiple systems are already in the market and recognized as a viable alternative to the conventional hard chrome plating process.
In India, apart from the leading twenty FMCG brands and their packaging material suppliers, the market is perhaps unsustainable both in terms of margins and in terms of the environmental compliance needed to meet the Indian government’s mandates on recyclability and the use of polymer recyclates. Although brand owners, importers, and producers, including packaging converters, are required to register on the government portal, and record their use of plastic, and their inputs of virgin and recycled polymers, most companies are not able to meaningfully account for or upload their detailed data. A responsible and published audit done several months ago by the CSE indicated that some of the data uploaded seemed highly improbable.
Among brand owners, it is simply convenient to pay a recycler for a certificate indicating that a similar tonnage to their packaging material usage has been recycled, no matter whether it is either downcycled or simply collected and delivered free of charge to a cement plant for use in its furnace for energy. At the risk of preaching, it is the brand owners who are sitting on top of the supply chain, and it is they who need to think through the mid-term and long-term sustainability of the industry.
Brand owners must drive the supply chain for safe and sustainable packaging by encouraging those who have invested in higher-quality, energy-efficient, and innovative recyclable structures. For too long, they have compromised their packaging for the lowest price. Henceforth, with these short-sighted practices, while they think they are tilting the playing field, they are not only endangering their solid packaging suppliers but also risking censure by consumers and significant fines by the government.
