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English Translation

China's packaging machinery industry has entered a path of healthy and orderly development. According to the China Economic Equipment Manufacturing Industry Prosperity Index Report, after preliminary seasonal adjustment, the year-on-year growth rate of packaging special-purpose equipment in the third quarter, despite a significant decline from the previous quarter, still reached 37.2%, remaining at a relatively high level.

The packaging industry in China started relatively late but has grown very rapidly. The total output value of the national packaging industry has increased from less than 10 billion yuan in 1991 to over 200 billion yuan today, providing packaging for trillions of yuan worth of industrial and agricultural products and food annually, and playing a significant role in the national economy. According to statistics, the proportion of China's food packaging machinery directly serving the food industry is as high as over 80%.

However, behind the rapid development of China's packaging industry, there remain many issues within the sector. China's packaging machinery exports account for less than 5% of total output value, while imports are roughly equivalent to the total output value. Compared with foreign products, domestic packaging machinery still lags considerably in terms of technological level, far from meeting domestic demand. For example, a single production line for biaxially oriented plastic film costs nearly 100 million yuan. Since the introduction of such technology began in the 1970s, China has imported a cumulative total of 110 such production lines to date.

In terms of product structure, China has over 1,300 varieties of packaging machinery, but lacks high-tech, high-precision, and high-quality supporting products, with low product performance and poor stability and reliability. In terms of enterprise conditions, the domestic packaging machinery industry lacks leading enterprises, and there are few companies with advanced technology, large-scale production, and products that meet international standards. In terms of research and product development, the industry largely remains at the stage of testing and imitation, with weak independent development capabilities and insufficient R&D investment—funding accounting for only 1% of sales revenue, compared with 8%–10% in developed countries.

Relevant experts have analyzed that the current global trends in packaging machinery development include high production efficiency, high resource utilization, product energy conservation, practical application of high and new technologies, and commercialization of research achievements. For Chinese packaging machinery manufacturers, relying solely on increased capital investment and expanded production scale—an extensive mode of operation—can no longer meet the demands of the evolving situation. China's packaging equipment production has entered a new phase of adjusting product structure and enhancing development capabilities. Technological upgrading, product renewal, and strengthened management remain important topics for the industry's development.

In the view of industry insiders, strengthening basic technological research is a matter of urgency. The current priorities for basic technology development in packaging machinery include mechatronics integration, heat pipe technology, and modularization. Mechatronics integration and microcomputer applications can improve the level of automation, reliability, and intelligence in packaging. Heat pipe technology can enhance the sealing quality of packaging machinery. The adoption of modular design and CAD/CAM technologies can improve material selection, processing equipment, and process technology levels in packaging machinery. Therefore, China's packaging industry should strengthen the research, development, and application of basic technologies.

For key packaging machinery projects, the state should provide appropriate policy and financial support to mobilize leading enterprises' enthusiasm for developing new products. Through the R&D process, the government should support a number of backbone packaging machinery enterprises with independent innovation capabilities, cultivate China's own professional design teams, and create branded packaging machinery products with Chinese characteristics, so that China's packaging machinery industry can embark on a path of healthy and orderly development.

Packaging machinery enterprises should also persist in technological innovation. They should actively attract talent, cultivate their own professional design teams, develop high-tech products that meet market demand, improve product quality, develop new product varieties, and establish operational mechanisms for technological innovation. Enterprises should explore models that combine production, education, and research, actively creating conditions to encourage research institutes to join enterprise groups, so that enterprises gradually become the main players in industrial technology development and investment. At the same time, they should make full use of the convenience brought by e-commerce to streamline core business operations, improve after-sales service, shorten turnover cycles, and achieve greater returns from limited resources.