China's Packaging Machinery Market Research Report - PMMI

2. HISTORY OF THE CHINESE PACKAGING MACHINERY INDUSTRY
Before 1949, there was literally no packaging machinery industry in China. Some
simple manual packaging tools were manufactured in very few factories or
workshops, which mainly provided repair, and replacement services for imported
machinery. Today, however, the packaging machinery industry has become among
the ten major mechanical industries in China.
The development of the Chinese packaging machinery industry is normally divided
into the following four stages.
(1) Stage of Slow Development (1950’s and 1960’s)
The demand for packaging machinery was quite small due to the sluggish market
and inadequate attention the government paid to the industry. Some packaging
machinery was developed as parts of the production lines of the light industry, the
pharmaceutical industry, and the chemical industry.
(2) Stage of Imitation (1970’s)
With the introduction of imported machinery, some domestic machinery factories
imitated the new foreign models of packaging machinery with the assistanc e of
research institutes.
(3) Industry Establishment Stage (1980’s)
The Reformation resulted in the booming of the Chinese commodity economy.
Increasing exports greatly stimulated the development of the packaging machinery
industry. The sales of packaging machinery products increased from RMB 191
million in 1981 to RMB 268 million in 1990, with the product categories booming
from 182 to more than 1000.
(4) Stage of High-Speed Development (1990’s)
The sales of the Chinese packaging machinery industry was remarkably enhanced
during the 1990’s, reaching RMB 13.9 billion in 1999. More than 3,200 categories of
packaging machinery products formed a relatively complete product system that
reduced the gap between Chinese and overseas packaging technology.
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