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Haven’t talked to Mitsubishi in a while. We are on Zoom with Giovanni Bettini, Head of Sales of Corrugating Machinery Division at MHI EMEA
Giovanni, what are the main trends you see in the global corrugated industry?
During the past 2-3 years of COVID, due to the high demand for boxes, the global trend has been to buy more machines to increase productivity, so MHI has sold many converting lines and corrugators during this period.
Then over the last 2-3 months we could see a slight slowdown in inquiries across Europe, and now companies are starting to invest again. At the same time, their investments are no longer related to increasing productivity, but to reducing costs, such as replacing two machines with one while maintaining the same productivity as now. This is the main trend that we are seeing in the market at the moment. It may vary slightly from market to market, but in Europe this is generally the case.
MHI overall performance in 2022, which equipment was the most popular?
We mainly sold a large number of EVOL casemakers. Our capacity is 72 machines per year (six per month) and we are currently fully booked. This means that last year we sold at least 72 lines. We have also supplied several corrugators to Europe and other parts of the world. About the same number was installed.
MHI has launched a new MC Flexo Folder Gluer. We know it’s shorter and has an improved print unit design where the operator doesn’t need ladders to change ink, what else?
This is the MC100, and there is only one ladder instead of four, which greatly reduces the time of travel from one section to another. Several of these machines have been tested in Japan and Thailand for two years now, and several have been sold in the United States. In July 2022, we installed the first such machine in Europe in Switzerland, and this year we are going to install another one in Türkiye.
However, we do not promote this machine 100% because we want to test its reliability first and make further improvements. But this is undoubtedly a real one, not just a dream that exists only on the drawing board.
So the field testing is still going on…
It’s almost complete. Let’s see how things go in the coming months, and then move on to promotion and marketing.
Basing on the trends of 2022, what do you expect in 2023?
The prospects for this year are more related to cost reduction, this is the main goal of our customers. In 2023, we have many projects where companies are planning to replace two or even three machines with one of our EVOLs, which is quite possible and confirmed by many installations. The EVOL FFG with dual slotter doubles the line capacity and can run up to 42,000 boxes per hour (700 boxes per minute).
So far, we have accumulated a lot of experience with EVOLs, having installed around 650 of them worldwide.
What industry events are you planning to attend this year?
Right now one of my colleagues is visiting CCE International in Munich as a guest. We are going to set up a booth at the FEFCO Technical Seminar this October in Lyon. The main event of this year is FEFCO.
How did you install the EVOL 100 at the Kyiv Cardboard and Paper Mill last year?
The first EVOL was installed in Ukraine during the ‘regular’ period, but the installation of the second one began in January, and then we could not complete it for obvious reasons. Still, a few months later we completed it remotely, with the help of people from the Kyiv CPM, supported by our engineers from the office. So the credit for this installation lies with the people of the Kyiv Cardboard and Paper Mill, who did the hardest work. It was a really good job and great success, and we are very grateful to them.
Thank you very much and good luck!
gofro.expert
