Packaging Print Passes Half a Trillion: The $604bn Growth Forecast for 2029

Packaging and labels have become the strategic center of gravity for the printing industry. New market modelling from Smithers shows the sector generated $504.9 billion in global value in 2024 — more than half a trillion dollars — and forecasts growth to $604.0 billion by 2029, a 3.6 percent compound annual growth rate.

The Scale of the Numbers

The volume behind those figures is difficult to visualize: 14.31 trillion A4 print equivalents of labels, corrugated board, folding cartons, flexible paper and plastics, rigid plastic, and metal packaging were printed in 2024, consuming 1.54 million tons of ink. Output is projected to reach 17.12 trillion A4 equivalents by the end of the forecast period. While traditional publication and graphics markets remain static or decline, rising consumption of packaged goods continues to fuel expansion.

Process Mix: Flexo Still Dominates

Flexo remains the most widely used process, particularly for high-volume corrugated board, labels, and flexible formats, accounting for 52.6 percent of contemporary output. Gravure and offset litho follow with 20.1 and 17.9 percent of volume respectively, favored for higher-quality graphics on folding cartons and flexible packaging. For analogue OEMs, the further penetration of digital print — especially the latest generation of higher-throughput inkjet machines — poses a direct challenge, with quality improving even as long-run economics become more competitive.

Digital's Outsize Value Share

Digital currently accounts for just 1.1 percent of packaging volume but 3.9 percent of value — and Smithers models digital output growing at a 12.8 percent CAGR across the next five years. At Drupa, a host of new machines for high-speed digital printing of folding cartons were shown, alongside a developing footprint of single-pass inkjet corrugated presses and narrow-web toner and inkjet systems configured for short-run flexible jobs. Analogue OEMs are responding with greater automation in prepress and on press, hybrid systems that print variable data on high-speed analogue lines, and tighter workflow integration.

Sustainability Rewrites the Material Set

Regulatory developments, including the EU's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, are emphasizing recyclability and pushing converters toward water-based inks, better de-inking technology, and material sets that are easier to recover at end of life. In the narrow-web segment this means thinner, easier-to-separate labelstocks, lower ink coverage, and minimized or switched adhesives. The drive for sustainability is also shifting converters toward more paperboard and coated paper stocks, as well as thicker monomaterial polymer formats in flexibles.

For printers and brand owners alike, the packaging segment now defines where the industry's growth actually lives. The strategic question is no longer whether to invest in packaging print capability, but how quickly to build the digital and sustainable workflows that the next five years will reward. The direction of the market is clear — the debate now is about pace and positioning.