The German paper processing association WPV has announced at interpack 2008 that sales of paper and board packaging increased by a further 11.3% to Euro 9.66 billion in 2007.The favourable domestic economy and the strong German export trade had boosted demand for paper and board packaging in 2007. The sales growth generated by the manufacturers of paper and board had also led to an increase of 0.8% in the number of employees to almost 46000. Production capacity utilisation was good up to the end of the year at 91.5% as well.
Total sales by the paper processing industry in Germany amounted to Euro 16.8 billion in 2007, 9.5% higher than in 2006. While domestic sales of paper and board products were up 9.6%, export sales exceeded the previous year by as much as 16.9%. About 70% of the exports went to the Eurozone.
The industry association WPV expressed strong criticism of the recent amendment to the packaging decree, which would not help to eliminate serious mistakes in the development of recycling legislation. Paper and board were described as packaging materials which were a valuable secondary raw material after use, for which there was great demand and the recycling of which was guaranteed without any regulation by the political community. The WPV therefore aimed to have paper and board packaging eliminated from the regulations included in the packaging decree.
