Chika Imakita, CEO of Greenpac, in an interaction with Grena, Correspondent, Asia Manufacturing Review, explains how specialized industrial packaging goes beyond protection to serve as a strategic indicator of activity in the semiconductor and medtech sectors. She notes that emerging packaging demand is a reflection of capital equipment investments, indicators of capacity growth and supply-chain shifts and increasingly reflects sustainability and risk-management priorities driving advanced manufacturing globally.
Chika Imakita is a Chief Executive officer of Greenpac, a company that offers sustainable and innovative packaging solutions in Singapore and Malaysia. She previously served as Managing Director of UPS Singapore and Malaysia and has been in senior leadership positions within Asia Pacific region, spearheading strategic growth, operation excellence and customer orientated transformation. She has the vast-established experience in business planning, product strategy, and market development in various countries.
How does demand for specialized protective packaging correlate with fluctuations in global semiconductor and medtech production cycles?
Economic cycles often begin when companies invest in capital equipment. The CAPEX investment is an early sign of economic growth. When industrial packaging firms are occupied, it indicates that there is high production and exporting of equipment. Singapore produces approximately 20% of global semiconductor equipment. This is not a reference to chip manufacturers, but rather to companies which produce machines used to make or test chips. Equally, medtech customers include manufacturers of large optical systems and laboratory equipment for hematology. Singapore and Malaysia play a pivotal role for equipment manufacturers in Southeast Asia.
Equipment manufacturers must invest in these machines before chip production can take place. This shows that it correlates highly with CAPEX investment. After manufacturing the equipment, the equipment has to be exported, thus creates demand for industrial crates. That is why industrial packaging is a leading or early indication of manufacturing.
In what ways can packaging order volumes act as an early signal for capacity expansion, supply-chain shifts, or new technology investments in advanced manufacturing sectors?
When manufacturers invest in capital equipment, they also need industrial packaging to export these machines since their production site is usually far away to their end customers or where their downstream manufacturing operations are taking place. Equally, the investments in new technology and R&D activities are an indication that mass production will eventually take place elsewhere. In each scenario, growth in manufacturing requires the use of capital equipment. Hence, capital equipment investment becomes an early indicator of increased manufacturing and trade activity. Since capital equipment has to be packed and transported, the industrial packaging demand can be taken as a leading indicator of broader economic trends.
To reduce the risks of depending on a single supply source, the large manufacturers are currently adopting dual-location strategies: one facility in China for the domestic market, and another outside China- often serving the U.S. and other global markets to mitigate tariff and geopolitical risks. As a result, countries such as Singapore and those in Southeast Asia have become preferred locations for regional headquarters or manufacturing plants. These decisions are an early indicator of new supply-chain shifts. That increase in packaging demand reflects the overall realignment of the supply chain trends.
How are sustainability requirements influencing the materials, design, and engineering of high-value industrial packaging for sensitive electronic and medical equipment?
Governments are now demanding a higher level of sustainability. For instance, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) of the EU is currently transitioning to active enforcement. This rule requires businesses to report the existence of non-recyclable in their value chain, as well as the proportion of materials that are recycled and non-recycled.
The same applies to packaging, and compliance expectations will only increase. As a result, it is crucial to monitor record and transparently report the types of materials utilized their sources, and to the extent which they are recyclable. The vendors or secondary players in the industry who are unable to offer this form of traceability will eventually be considered non-compliant. This focus on sustainability reporting is especially relevant to the medical equipment industry. Strict regulations are normally applied to high-value industries first, and then the regulation requirements eventually cascading into sectors such as semiconductors and others further down the value chain.
How are innovations like smart packaging, IoT-enabled sensors, and anti-tamper technologies shaping risk management for semiconductor and medtech shipments?
Packaging has already numerous protective features such as anti-theft, anti-shock and anti-tamper technologies. A large part of this technology is does not operate in real time. Although some temperature control systems are currently provide real-time monitoring, most anti-tamper or shock-detection solutions only indicate that something has happened somewhere along the supply chain, without a precise timestamp.
Innovation is clearly required to be able to track such events in real time. Anti-tamper technologies would operate in real time and enable the stakeholders to know the exact time and place where a package was hit, tilted, or tampered.
From a packaging standpoint, work closely with logistics providers, but pinpointing the exact timing and location of such incidents remains a challenge. Advancing real-time monitoring and a time stamped reporting will become necessary to enhance accountability, reduce losses, and increase the general supply chain transparency.
How can packaging solution providers collaborate with OEMs to reduce damage rates, minimize returns, and optimize total cost of ownership across global supply chains?
It is critically important to collaborate closely not only with OEMs but also with the manufacturers’ R&D departments. The R&D teams design the equipment and are aware of the weak points, center of gravity, and other sensitive parts that need protection during transportation.
Engineers should collaborate with the customer’s product engineers to develop packaging solutions tailored for new products. This ensures that the high value equipment is transported safely to point A to point B with minimal risk of damage. In practice, the numerous semiconductor customers in the U.S. design packaging using pine wood, which is inexpensive and widely available in the North America. For equipment manufactured in Singapore or Malaysia, importing pine from New Zealand or Eastern Europe is costly and inefficient. Instead, we suggest the use of locally available materials such as plywood or LVL, which are found in Vietnam and are cheaper, greener and are readily available. Beyond the technical aspects, industrial packaging plays a greater role within the greater manufacturing ecosystem.
Primary manufacturing activities cannot succeed without a robust secondary industry comprising of packaging suppliers, component providers, and logistics services. The governments and industrial organizations must concentrate on upgrading of the local ecosystems and logistics, since these are essential elements in terms of attracting foreign direct investment and promoting sustainable manufacturing development.
Consumer packaging is also of great concern in sustainability reporting, but the industrial packaging remains largely overlooked. Companies can achieve significant cost savings and lower their carbon footprint at large scale by thoughtfully designing industrial packaging to be smaller, lighter, and locally sourced.
In conclusion, industrial packaging is not only a logistical requirement, but a strategic enabler of manufacturing effectiveness, risk management, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness. It must be recognized as a fundamental element of the manufacturing ecosystem and integrated into both operational and sustainability strategies.