• The vice president of amec envasgraf and CEO of Effytec, Luis Villegas, explained that 2020 “will not be a bad year”, although the good expectations that were had at the beginning will not be fulfilled. Companies have had to make investments in order to stay in contact with their customers.
• The new amec offers services and activities aimed at promoting the new key competitiveness factors of companies and promotes collaboration between them to achieve goals that are difficult to achieve alone, as explained by the director of amec packaging, Carmina Castellà

Barcelona, ​​October 13, 2020. amec envasgraf held a meeting with the media related to the packaging technology sector in which it shared the situation of the sector.

Given the news about the evolution of the pandemic and its effects on the economy, “many clients have rethought whether it was time to make the investment or not,” which has led to a slowdown in projects, explained the vice president of amec packaging and CEO of Effytec, Luis Villegas. However, over time the projects have been reactivated and new ones have emerged. “The decision-making has been prolonged and has meant that the customers have needed the immediate supply afterwards. For this reason, although we have always characterized ourselves by making customized equipment, at this time companies have also had to manufacture standard machines to be able to serve with the immediacy that the client requires”.

For the vice president of amec envasgraf 2020 “it will not be a bad year, but it is clear that it will not be what we had thought at the beginning”, before the Co-vid-19 broke out, and with the celebration of Interpack in the agenda, a very important event in the sector that has finally moved to February 2021.

Although the usual thing in a crisis is to cut expenses, this time “most of the companies have turned to making certain investments that allow us to continue working. Being in contact with customers required more means than we had”, explained Villegas. The vice president of amec envasgraf has extensively detailed how companies are operating in the markets and how they have had to solve the difficulties they have encountered in recent months.

The evolution of the main markets: the US in the lead and the Russian surprise

The United States is the main destination country for Spanish teams in the sector and has maintained a positive trend since 2016. The exponential increase in exports to Russia, little affected by the pandemic, stands out. France, Poland and Italy maintain stable growth rates. “Germany, Portugal and Algeria have slowed down, while Mexico and the United Kingdom have slowed down,” explained the director of amec packaging, Carmina Castellà.

The director of amec envasgraf has indicated how the pandemic has accelerated the mega-trends that for years have been affecting the productive model of the sector, such as digitization, key to monitoring production through re-compiled data and thus optimizing processes productive; the automation of processes and industry 4.0; the adaptability of the machines to changes in container format; the evolution of e-commerce; smart packaging; the application of the Eco Design concept in machines; and environmental requirements, as well as the commitment to energy efficiency and the circular economy.

Even so, “Covid-19 has slowed down the evolution of greater consumer confidence towards packaging that respects the environment and its more sustainable forms”, since the safety, hygiene and integrity of the products have pa – brought to the fore during the current crisis. “The pandemic may have impacted on the speed of change in the short term, although it does not put an end to this conviction in the long term,” Castellà stressed. For this reason “the manufacturer of packaging and packaging technology is increasingly aware of the need to work towards the 3 Rs: Reduce, Recycle and Reuse”. amec “defends the responsible use of plastic packaging, which at the same time should not be demonized, as it fulfills the important mission of not compromising food safety”, explained the director of amec envasgraf. Along these lines, the director of amec packaging confirms that “there will be an increase in regulations”, as is already happening with the entry into force on July 3, 2021 of Directive (EU) 2019/904 on reduction of plastic, which prohibits certain single-use plastics and the use of cosmetics and detergents that contain intentionally added microplastics.

The contact has served to present the new amec, which with its new mission has ceased to focus solely on internationalization to promote the new key factors of competitiveness in companies: anticipation, adaptability, collaboration, glocalization and sustainability. This is shown in the activities and services it offers to its members: these are face-to-face and online international activities, training, prospects, advice. The new amec pays great attention to helping companies attract talent, necessary for their transformation, and to promoting collaboration among its members, in order to materialize new projects that are difficult to achieve alone.

amec promotes the new key competitiveness factors in companies

The association of internationalized industrial companies amec promotes the new key competitiveness factors in companies in Spain: anticipation, adaptability, collaboration, glocalization and sustainability. The companies that are part of amec generate an export volume of over 6,200 million euros, export an average of 55.5% of their turnover and invest 4.7% in innovation.