Michem coat 525, one of Michelman’s recently Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI)-certified compostable coatings, obtained the Silver Award for Innovative Packaging Materials at China’s 2021 Packcon Star Awards. Michelman China submitted the containers applied with this coating for evaluation during Packcon 2021, one of China’s premier packaging industry trade events featuring China’s packaging trends and developments.
Michelman stood out from more than 20 companies after a comprehensive evaluation by event attendees and industry judges. Guangzhou Procter & Gamble Technology Innovation, Hewlett-Packard (China), Shunqihe (Shenzhen) Technology, Department of Printing and Packaging of Wuhan University, RRD Asia, Dongguan City Jingli Can, Fudan Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts, Shenzhen Green Song Design Consulting, Wuhan Pufan Design, and other end-user representatives participated in the judging.
Michelman Michem coat 525 provides maximum oil and grease performance
The coating was highly rated during the evaluation, scoring high marks for being PFAS-free, repulpable, and compostable. Michem coat 525 also provides maximum oil and grease performance in molding pulp and other fiber-based food service applications.
The Indian Flexible Packaging and Folding Carton Association (IFCA) recently awarded Michelman India an IFCA Star Award for HydraBan 8000, a PFAS-free water-resistant paper coating with excellent gluability and printability. Like Michem coat 525, it was proven to biodegrade in an industrial compost environment and passed biodegradation and ecotoxicity testing to receive certification.
Both coatings can be used in quantities typical for the applications it is designed for with minimal limitations. Additionally, HydraBan 8000 is FDA-approved for direct food contact and, like Michem coat 525, is ideal for fiber-based food-service packaging applications.
Michelman’s portfolio of BPI-certified products includes Michem coat 2000, a functional coating that provides maximum oil and grease performance with additional coatings currently being tested. In addition, Michelman’s portfolio of compostable coatings is currently available only in North America, with global development underway.
2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India
Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and
multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.
The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry.
While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately
their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book
printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.
The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.
Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.
Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.
Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.
