US LABEL SHIPMENTS TO REACH NEARLY $14 BILLION IN 2004.
US shipments of labels are projected to advance at an annual pace of nearly 7 percent through the year 2004, approaching $14 billion. While paper will remain the dominant label stock for the foreseeable future, plastic films will continue to make inroads, logging annual gains upwards of ten percent. Output will reach nearly 8 billion square meters of converted labels, which will require more than 2 billion pounds of paper, plastic films, adhesives, inks and other raw materials. Advances will be based on the aesthetic and performance advantages of plastic labels, the growing use of plastic packaging for an array of consumer goods, and the popularity of labeling methods like pressure sensitive, in-mold and sleeve, which rely disproportionately on plastic substrates. Oriented polypropylene will exhibit the fastest growth among the major label resins, further supplanting polyvinyl chloride. These and other trends are presented in Labels, a new study from The Freedonia Group, Inc., a Cleveland-based industrial market research firm.Pressure sensitive adhesive labels will continue to capture market share, already accounting for over two-thirds of the label industry in value terms. Pressure sensitives dominate growth markets like electronic article surveillance, bar coding, and other variable information and data processing labels. They also continue to make gains at the expense of wet-glue labels in primary product packaging, despite their higher initial costs.
The best gains are expected for plastic heat-shrink labels, which offer aesthetic and performance advantages and can be used in lieu of other labels and direct decoration techniques on virtually all container types. Sleeves are also favored for their security enhancing features and for their compatibility with the increasingly popular contoured containers. Flexography will remain the primary label printing method, with above-average gains supported by flexo's low cost and the ongoing development of high quality, environmentally friendly ultraviolet curing inks.
The packaging market will remain the largest, though the best gains are expected in secondary labeling applications, where labels play an increasingly important role in electronic data processing and inventory control systems. The pinnacle of this process will be the long awaited emergence of "smart" labels capable of integrating bar coding, anti-shoplifting and logistics features. Intense competition from direct printing and decoration, however, will limit growth in markets ranging from drink cans to shipping boxes.
Labels (published 10/2000, 259 pages) is available for $3,700 from The Freedonia Group, Inc., 767 Beta Drive, Cleveland, OH 44143-2326. For further details, please contact Corinne Gangloff by phone 440.684.9600, fax 646.0484 or e-mail pr@freedoniagroup.com. Full text is also available online through commercial database companies and the www.freedoniagroup.com Web site.
LABEL SHIPMENTS & SALES (million US dollars)
% Annual Growth Item 1989 1999 2004 99/89 04/99 Label 5185 9895 13705 6.7 6.7 Shipments Pressure 2992 6667 9760 8.3 7.9 Sensitive Glue-Applied 1639 2163 2490 2.8 2.9 Other 554 1065 1455 6.8 6.4 Label Sales 5191 9717 13340 6.5 6.5
Freedonia Group, Inc. (Cleveland, OH)
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| Comment: | US LABEL SHIPMENTS TO REACH NEARLY $14 BILLION IN 2004. |
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| Publication: | Research Studies - Freedonia Group |
| Geographic Code: | 1USA |
| Date: | Oct 13, 2000 |
| Words: | 499 |
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