PETpla.net Insider 01+02 / 2021

BOTTLE MAKING 34 PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 01+02/21 www.petpla.net tion, including 12 preform units and nine crystallisers for hot fill application containers. A small number of preforms are also sold to third-party consumers. “We have been producing bottles with PCO1810 necks for a long time but have now switched 70-80% of our pro- duction capacity to PCO1881s”, said Mr Huang. “We also bought a machine for producing 38mm bottle necks three years ago. Our moulds and cavities are designed for a wide range of bottle types. We currently use 16, 24 and 32 cavities in our preforms, and 4, 6 and 10 for blowing purposes”. Caps are not made by the company but pur- chased exclusively from local firms. Bottles range from between 250ml to 2 l in size. Mr Huang estimates that around 30-40 different moulds are used. The 500ml square bottle is the company’s overseas best seller which can be packaged and easily stacked on pallets. Target Plastic sells mostly 600ml, 650ml and 1.5 l cans on the local market. Total production is 350 million bottles a year, of which 50 mil- lion are filled. Among the firm’s biggest customers are Kaishi Oolong in Taiwan and the Polish Biedronka supermarket chain. PET material is sourced from Shinkong, Nanya and Far East who can sometimes supply preforms in rare and exceptional circumstances. Target Plastic’s most recent turnover was US$ 30 million and has been growing considerably since last year. 100 out of its 160 employees work in blowing and 60 in filling activities. Bottling and downstream equipment come from local suppliers. “We are considering investing more in Euro- pean machinery in the long-term”, said Mr Huang. “We are also look- ing at integrated inline systems for blowing, filling and capping, e.g. from Sidel, Krones, KHS or CFT”. Hot filling in-house Hot filling is the company’s main in-house application. Mr Huang estimates his own share of Tai- wan’s market for hot fill products to be between 50-55% which includes genuine light weight varieties. “We have achieved real savings in mate- rial compared to bottles that were one and a half times heavier in my father’s day. I can say that our hot fill bottles are among the lightest available inter- nationally. Our strengths here clearly lie on the technological side”. One reason for the high demand for his hot fill drinks is probably sav- ings in material of approximately 26-30 g in heavy packaging. Here, the target is only 20-22 g. The concept of hot fill drinks is an extremely impor- tant one but local equipment is often outdated, he added. At the same time, however, this may also offer promising investment opportunities. In addition, rPET will be used more in future to meet customer expectations. Managing Director Po-Chao Huang in front of Target Plastic’s filling area “American and European custom- ers in particular want to see more rPET in bottles”, said Mr Huang. Far East is currently the only firm in Taiwan which can provide recy- cled PET. It is very expensive and you can only get it when combined with new material under the terms of supply contracts. However, Nanya and Shinkong will probably be able to offer solutions here soon. In Taiwan itself, rPET cannot be used in drinks packaging by law but we hope this legislation will be amended soon. In the meantime, we are keeping a close eye on developments in the USA and Europe and will react as we see fit. Recycling is also becoming increas- ingly important locally and is some- thing that NGOs in Taiwan are actively promoting. The population is open to this idea, with further measures assuming greater significance for all kinds of material”. Taiwan Honchuan is Target Plas- tic’s largest competitor in terms of products and Mr Huang freely admits his company is in a different league when it comes to volume. “Our main areas of expertise are in providing flexible solutions for smaller cus- tomers which we also support when entering the market. The same drinks recipes can be used in different coun- tries which enables customers to get started quickly using their own private labels”. 500ml square bottle “Aloe”