The Indonesian market for blown-film packaging is booming, officials say. The challenges to be tackled and the economic conditions to be fulfilled to satisfy the high demands were discussed at the second Extrusioneers Summit held by Reifenhäuser in Jakarta on Sept. 2, 2014.

The Indonesian market for blown-film packaging is booming, officials say. Main topics of the event were the production of high-end films and the realization of high output rates.

Indonesia has a population of 250 million. The majority is striving for better living standards with good success.The country’s per capita income has doubled over the past ten years and so has the consumption of the plastics, from 9.7 to 17.5 kilograms per capita. This rapid development will continue, which is illustrated by comparison with, for instance, Western European regions, where every inhabitant consumes about 140 kgs. The Southeast Asian country is still far away from reaching these figures. But company officials say its potential is enormous.

Although film producers will benefit from this development, they have to rise to new challenges. Higher demands require an increase in productivity. Better product quality will become ever more important in the future. At a Reifenhäuser Extrusioneers Summit, the manufacturer of plastics extrusion systems showed ways how film producers can benefit from growth opportunities and demonstrated which technical prerequisites are needed to keep pace with the development in the future.

Juergen Rehkopf, managing director of Reifenhäuser Singapore and organizer of the event says: “With the Extrusioneers Summit we have offered producers the opportunity to exchange views and have face-to-face discussions with experts in production lines, conversion processes, recycling and raw materials, on topics such as ROI, overall efficiency and sustainability, and to look beyond their own areas of activity. The great interest in the event shows that there is a high demand for exchanging information, particularly on the subject of productivity.“

Over 70 visitors, mainly decision makers from Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia, accepted the invitation to attend the event at which lectures were given by experts from Reifenhäuser, Flexoprinting Technology by KBA, NGR, Plast-Control and Dow.

The most important message to the attendees was that high output rates required already today due to increasing demands, can be realised very well also in tropical zones like Indonesia. Advanced technology using modern cooling concepts makes it possible.

How this works in practice was shown to the attendees at an Open House following the Extrusioneers Summit in the afternoon of September 2. Packaging film producer Nusa Eka demonstrated the outstanding performance of the Evolution Ultra Cool cooling concept on a Reifenhäuser blown film line under tropical conditions and with high air humidity.

The example of Nusa Eka shows that this high productivity can be obtained without many years of know-how in the high-performance market. The company was a newcomer to this market and used Reifenhäuser technology to get off to a fast start with their strategic step.

James Winner, managing director of Nusa Eka says: “Today, we are able to produce dimensions and, of course, also qualities that are quite different from the previous ones. This will not only enable us to strongly grow in Indonesia, but also to enter export markets of the Asean free trade area. The best evidence for this is the fact that the line was working at full capacity only several months after production start."

Nusa Eka was the first company in Southeast Asia to rely on the new Evolution Ultra Cool cooling concept. Other companies from Vietnam and Thailand have followed the positive example in the meantime. Juergen Rehkopf is convinced that the market will continue to push the technological development of the country forward. “Much is happening in Southeast Asia in technological respects. Ultra Cool has absolutely proven in practice. Ever more producers recognize the added value of high-performance systems. However, the demands made on packaging and technology will continue rising. In our opinion, the trend will go from 3-layer lines to 5-layer polyolefin lines in the medium term. We will further accompany our customers down this road."

The next Extrusioneers Summit is scheduled for 2015. The focus in Vietnam will be on 7-layer lines provided with Evolution Ultra Cool and Evolution Ultra Flat.

Reifenhauser
www.reifenhauser.com