Why Worry about the Straits of Hormuz?

Many people, and not only in the United States, are getting fed up with hearing about Hormuz. With gasoline prices going down, why worry? The answer, if you’re in the European label or packaging business, is: don’t stop worrying. Brent crude may be falling, but the feedstocks for plastics are staying high. 

According to the Independent Commodity Intelligence Services (ICIS), some 84% of Middle Eastern PE capacity relies on this narrow passage for exports by sea. The financial pressure is still moving down the value chain. “This is impacting consumers, says ICIS, because converters will pass on price increases to brand owners, who will then pass on price increases to consumers.” 

Flint Group, Huber, and Wacker are among leading manufacturers threatening more price hikes in polymers. Fearing the future, these companies and others are buying up what they can, thereby driving prices yet higher.

Another French Press Maker Goes Under

Some readers may remember the rivalry between SMAG and Codimag. These two specialist manufacturers of narrow web presses were both based near Paris and almost close enough to glare at each other. Then SMAG got taken over and its former owner-manager went off to sell for Mark Andy. Codimag in its turn went Chapter 11. Now what is left of SMAG has acquired what is left of Codimag.  

Faster and Faster  

The label market in Spain and across Europe is being reshaped by what industry professionals refer to as the “Amazon effect:” Customers expect ever-faster delivery times, as well as flawless quality and competitive prices. For a specialist like LOC España, these pressures are a daily reality. This converter makes multi-layer labels, variable numbering booklet labels, often with reserved areas and special adhesives, or complex diecutting solutions. Orders are mostly high-volume, high value, says Zoilo López, CEO of LOC España. 

LOC’s relationship with Bobst began more than a decade ago, driven by the local Bobst team together with Feimar, the company’s official distributor in Spain. LOC started with a Bobst Master M4, which quickly proved its value in terms of versatility, reliability, and efficiency. Its intuitive operation, combined with innovative integrated tools, made an immediate difference, says López. 

When the time came for LOC to expand production capacity, they invested in an updated version of the same model to maximize tooling compatibility and seamless job transitions between production lines. The high-performance Master M5 flexo press was installed in mid-2025, with seamless integration into existing production. In June of this year, the LOC España team, in collaboration with Bobst and Avery Dennison, held several open days for other professionals in the label industry. The event provided a valuable opportunity to exchange knowledge on the latest printing technologies, self-adhesive materials, and production solutions while encouraging greater collaboration across the industry. LOC has a fully digital Bobst press already on order, to be installed before the end of the year.    

A Promising UK Partnership    

If one company excels in digital press technology and another one makes label finishing equipment, they are surely born to work together. So this is the planned partnership that will combine Konica Minolta’s AccurioLabel digital press technology with Grafisk Maskinfabrik’s finishing systems to provide an integrated workflow for label production. 

Konica Minolta will offer its AccurioLabel press alongside GM’s DC350Mini finishing system as a combined solution, aimed at gaining business in sectors such as artisan food and drink, cosmetics and private-label products, where shorter print runs and faster turnaround times are the order of the day. This will give GM broader access to commercial printers and label producers through Konica Minolta’s sales and service network.  

Are Your Labels Optimal?    

Based in the Netherlands, but with production also in Germany and Denmark, the Optimum Group makes labels and pouches mainly, but not only, for the food sector. It has just acquired not one but two new Nilpeter FA-17 flexographic presses. Once operational, the two new presses will provide additional manufacturing capacity in Denmark. 

André Prophitius, CEO of Optimum Group, says, “The addition of two new FA-17 presses gives us greater flexibility, efficiency, and capacity while supporting our ambition to deliver high-quality products and reliable service.”  

Mark Andy’s Success in the Balkans  

Cluj-Napoca is not the best-known town in Europe, nor even in Romania, but it is home to Seen Print, one of that country’s major package printing companies. By the bye, this Romanian town also has the most hair-raising road traffic, as your correspondent can witness. This has not stopped Mark Andy from successfully installing a Performance Series P7E able to convert a wide range of substrates, including unsupported film, shrink films, IML, self-adhesive stocks, and even light carton board up to 450 microns. 

A key factor in the deal was Mark Andy’s direct sales and service presence in Romania through technical sales manager Florian Stroe, whose specialist knowledge in flexo and digital hybrid technology was a key element in Seen Print’s choice.  

Siegwerk Moves Out  

Global ink supplier Siegwerk is a family-owned company in its seventh generation (it was founded in Siegburg, Germany, in 1824), so it can call upon 200 years of printing expertise. But like many European companies, it is finding high labor costs an obstacle to staying competitive.  

The company is closing its plant in Bargen, Switzerland, and production is to be relocated to an existing Siegwerk site in Turkey. The Bargen site will close in early 2027. More than 100 employees will lose their jobs, but between 35 and 40 employees are expected to remain in the Bern region of Switzerland, where the technology department will continue to be based. Switzerland, like Germany, has high labor and social costs and Siegwerk is not the only company looking to reduce costs. 

Turkey is not too far away from Europe’s heart and has a reputation for competent and industrious workers. It is ironic that Germany, in particular, used to import cheap labor from Turkey. Now the flow is going the other way.  

Durst Scores Another Hit in Poland    

Ekorol, a Polish label and flexible packaging converter based in Poznan, has installed a Durst Tau 340 RSC-E digital label press, supplied by LFP Industrial Solutions. LFP is an authorized distributor for Durst, Elitron IPM, MASSIVit, Vanguard, and Bullmer, as well as an integrator of industrial digital printing equipment. 

Ekorol’s decision to invest in the Durst platform came after several years of reflection. It first encountered Durst’s digital technology at Labelexpo Europe in Brussels a few years ago and saw that shorter run lengths and faster customer turnaround requirements were reshaping the label market. 

Piotr Modzelewski, Ekorol’s commercial manager, says, “In flexographic printing, the apparently low cost per job must be recalculated once you add the cost and lead time of the printing plate. For short runs, digital wins even where flexo appears cheaper on the surface. In our case, the new press doubled production speeds within weeks of installation.”

Interpack  

Disbelievers, including sometimes your correspondent, wondered if the 2026 Interpack show in Dusseldorf might be the last of its kind. Not so, say many leading exhibitors at the show, held over seven days in May of this year. The show’s organizers report that 2,804 exhibitors from 65 countries and trade visitors from 161 nations gathered in Düsseldorf – more than ever before. 

What was reflected in the closing statements by the show organizers was that: “The industry is working at full speed on concrete solutions for the future. High visitor numbers, in-depth discussions, and a consistently international presence defined the event. Topics such as sustainable materials, connected production, automation, and regulatory requirements – above all the European Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) – dominated many discussions and exhibits.” 

However, an internet search for the number of visitors to the show throws up: “There are no resources provided with specific attendance data.” A curious omission.  

Fibre Excellence – Not so Excellent  

France has many excellent qualities – its landscapes, wines, and gastronomy, to name but a few. It also has some less attractive features. One of them is a tendency to shout loudly for more public money whenever a plant is threatened with closure.  

Fibre Excellence, France’s last remaining pulp mill, is a case in point. With 670 employees, its threatened liquidation would make headlines, particularly as its sites are close to a region that could swing either way in the forthcoming presidential elections. Enter Monsieur Matthieu Pigasse, a financier said to be close to the left wing. Promising to rescue the company (and so to earn political brownie points), Pigasse put in his bid then started to have cold feet when he saw the state of Fibre Excellence’s debts.  

The tribunal has just put back the bid deadline to the end of July. “We must use this new deadline to ask the government (what did I tell you?) to make technical adjustments to save an entire industry, two factories, and jobs,” says Matthieu Levieille, CEO of Matthieu Pigasse’s group, Combat Holding. This gives you a premonition as to where the next dollop of taxpayers’ money might be going.  

A Modest Success in Release Liner Recovery  

Let’s close on a more cheerful note. Techlan, a UK specialist in release liner recovery, has developed a patented process to clean used silicone release liner while preserving the material’s structure for reuse in certain downstream applications. The company collects used silicone papers from the label industry, and also from sectors. 

Herma UK is helping to identify where suitable liner waste originates, which material types are appropriate for recovery, and where awareness is needed in the market. Techlan then cleans and converts them into new liner reels for further use. 

Says Techlan, “Rather than breaking the material down, the process is designed to retain its value and return it to use in industrial and specialist end uses.” It sounds too good to be true. Maybe it is.