The ACCA 11th General Meeting held at the Jaypee Palace Hotel & Convention Centre, Agra , INDIA on 10 th December 2004

Mr M L Agarwal of FCBM as Chairman of the Meeting per se welcomed all ACCA participating members to Agra , India , and formally invited all overseas guests to the 33 rd FCBM Conference for the next two days of corrugated technical sessions and conference activities.

ICCA Briefing And Dialogue

Mr Bruce Benson, ICCA President, briefed participants on the role of ICCA. It includes better industry activities at lower cost than each country or association doing them individually. He emphasised on the closer cooperation needed between ACCA and ICCA. He stated that the `Corrugated Recycle Symbol' was first developed in US several years ago, popularly used in Europe , and is now being accepted in Asia .

Mr. Bruce Benson on the centre with Mr. Agarwal on the right and KC Liew from Singapore on the left

The Common Footprint Standard for Returnable Plastic Case (RPC) was established and used in Europe . Use of RPC has now been spread to US replacing corrugated casing for products display such as by WalMart. ICCA sees its role in promoting the standardised RPC Footprint for display containers.

Corrugated Production Statistics

On the corrugated production statistics, Mr Bruce Benson pointed out that the collated quarterly figures are less of guesstimates now as more country members are contributing actual production numbers. There is the Annual Corrugated Forecast Analysis Report being compiled by an independent party, and it would soon be released and be available at the ICCA website.

Mr Atul Kaul of Saudi Paper Mfg remarked that ICCA is a powerhouse of corrugated information, but reckoned that there is room for improvement in the dissemination of such information to members and the industry. He then raised the query of quality bench marking of the industry in Asia . Mr Bruce Benson stated that TAPPI had done the productivity study but admittedly it was more to the American standard. Asia could replicate a similar study for the Asian standard using the TAPPI study as the model. ACCA can start by using the same format as ICCA in our quarterly production statistics.

Mr Le Roux of Seyfert Corrugated ( South Africa ) would like to know the priority of industry information such that they would contribute to the profitability of the industry in general, and to the ICCA/ACCA members in particular. Mr Agarwal pointed out that economic issues such as profitability are specific to each country and are hence, not really common to all members. Instead the emphasis of Association contributions should be with common issues to be shared among all its members such as that of Technical matters.

Mr Bruce Benson agreed that the biggest challenge is in the dissemination of information from ICCA through ACCA through Country Associations and to company members. He offered to help ACCA with ICCA format in whatever relevant industry project study needed.

Mr Raju of FCBM enquired on the membership relation between ICCA and ACCA members. Mr Bruce Benson clarified that ICCA would normally accept individual company as member only if that country has no corrugated industry association or the country association is not an ICCA member, with the exception of already accepted members.

Mr Jeffri Tan of PICCI pointed out the reliability of ACCA versus that of ICCA production statistics as there seems to be differences between their published figures.

Mr Agarwal explained that ACCA is relatively a young organisation and its members are still learning to improve the accuracy of its quarterly production figures for collation by the Association. The Editor of ACCA Newsletter would continue to collect such information from members for publication. ICCA will adopt ACCA figures in future.

Ms Amy Li of Reed Huayin offered to assist in technology information dissemination such as that of RFID specifically through its organised Sino-Corrugated shows.

Mr Bruce Benson confirmed that ICCA is now viewing its role beyond US, and there is opportunity that the next ICCA Conference in 2007 could be held in Asia, and disclosed that Japan (JCCA) is lined up to hold the next ICCA Chairmanship.

Country Report

South Africa - Mr Le Roux van Nickerk reported that in 2004, the South African corrugated market is estimated to be about 230,000mt largely in the Western Cape Area. Of this, the biggest sector comes from agriculture for export to Asian countries. Volume growth is 10% pa.

Malaysia - Mr Henry Low of MACCMA stated that the corrugated industry is still in bad shape with over-supply capacity. Many of the mid-sized players (about 2000 mtpa) are facing trouble and having to belt-tightened. Raw materials price had gone up by 7% to 8%, while product prices unable to increase because players are desperately trying to hold on to their own existing customers

Indonesia - Mr Jeffri Tan reported that while the food & beverage sector had seen growth, the overall corrugated industry market is down this year. Many small plants are in financial trouble. Paper mills had increased paper price by 4% to 8%. The government had announced domestic oil price increase for next year. Hopefully the newly elected Indonesian President would lift the industry

Saudi Arabia - Mr Brian M Clark stated the demand had been growing at 7% to 9% pa mainly due to increase in export businesses to Europe . However, the supply is growing even faster at 10% to 15% pa. This year prices are generally kept artificially low creating an unhealthy economic situation. Banks are not lending for investment in the local corrugated industry as attempt to slow growth and avoid overheating the economy. As for Middle East , the industry is more highly graphic. Challenges for next year would include the increasing value of the Euro currency, and the tendency towards more competition in costing than in marketing.

India - Mr Agarwal reckoned that the increased Euro currency has hit the Indian export market. Indian production now stands at 1.8 million tons pa from 5000 manufacturers. These plants range in size from 300 to 25,000 mtpa. The long term country GDP growth is 6%, and it is expected the box industry would grow at 1.5 times that of GDP, which is translated to 8% to 10% growth. A second phase outsourcing of manufacturing industry into India such as the textile industry in 2005 should boost the local corrugated industry.

BOBST - Mr Keller Rodplphe observed as machinery supplier that the local Indian corrugated industry is getting quality conscious and are hence, ready to invest in new equipment to meet the increase product quality demand. An example is the increase in use of duplex board for the growing pharmaceutical and cosmetic sectors.

Singapore - The local corrugated market growth is basically stagnant this year and most probably the next 2 to 3 years. At best the growth rate would be 1 to 2% pa really depending on China. Should the China economy slowdown, the local corrugated market may even drop 1 to 2 %. Quality wise, customers are demanding ISO 14,000 standard, and there is the trend towards the adoption of RFID in the near future. Current market size is estimated to be about 150,000 mtpa the same as in previous year.

Work Plan for Years 2005

As agreed at the previous meeting, Mr Jeffri Tan of PICCI has now confirmed that the next ACCA meeting would be held in Jogjakarta in the 3 rd week of April 2005 to coincide with PICCI Annual General Meeting and Conference. He will liaise with the Exec Sec on the details come nearer the time.

For the subsequent ACCA 9 th AGM around June/July 2005, CBMA had suggested it to be held in China so as to coincide with CPTA taking over of the ACCA Presidency. This is subject to CPTA agreement. However, Mr Atul Kaul proposed Dubai as the alternative venue for consideration. Hence, it was agreed that the decision on the venue for the ACCA 9 th AGM is to be finalised at the April meeting in Indonesia .

 ICCA 17 th Management Conference at Costa Rica .

Query was raised as to whether members would wish to participate in this event as representatives of ACCA group. Since there would not be much difference, it was agreed that individual member would participate on their own basis.

Sino-Corrugated 2005' Show

Ms Amy Li briefly presented an update on the show to be held in Shanghai from 30 th March to 1 st April 2005 . This will be the largest corrugated show even larger than the previous Paris Show. The exhibition would be held for the first time at the new Shanghai Exhibition Centre. There are already more than 320 confirmed exhibitors from 23 countries taking part with about 300 machineries on display. There will be forum and seminars held with speakers from various countries including Indonesia , Malaysia , Korea , etc….Ms Amy Li invited ICCA to consider participation, and promised full administrative assistance would be provided together with free exhibiting booths, etc …