Russian metallised film plant
plant for production of metallised film by the end of next year.
Russian packaging company Unipack Rus will put into operation a plant for production of metallised film by the end of next year.
Currently in Russia up to 90 per cent of the packaging material used by producers of chips and confectionery is now imported.
The new plant, worth $5 million (€5.1m), will have capacity comparable to that of the current entire Russian market for metallised film.
Italian company NeoGraph has partnered Unipack Rus for the project. NeoGraph will supply two machines for metallisation of film, worth €4 million. Commercial director of Unipack Rus, Kirill Derevitsky said that construction of workshops and infrastructure will cost €1 million. Unipack Rus plans to begin construction in September 2002. The company will use polypropylene film of ExxonMobil as the raw material.
Unipack Rus estimates capacity of Russian market of metallised film to be 9,000 tons a year, which approximately corresponds to productivity of the new plant. According to Andrei Arkharov, manager of Axiom group, importer of packaging film, in reality the company expects to take about one-third of the Russian market of polypropylene film after putting the new plant into operation.
"Metallised film is the best selling product on the packaging market, and demand for it will grow," said Derevitsky. According to Oxana Grunchenko, editor of the Internet magazine RCC.ru dedicated to packaging, the Russian market for polypropylene film is growing by 8 per cent a year.
Experts say that Russian market of polypropylene film amounts to about 46,000 tons (about €188 million). Approximately 68 per cent (31,000 tons) of film is used for packaging of foods and confectionery. The bulk of metallised film for the Russian market is currently imported from Poland and Italy.
