Amcor opens healthcare packaging facility in Singapore as regional demand surges
03 Dec 2021 --- Amcor is opening a greenfield packaging facility in Tuas, Singapore, as a dedicated healthcare facility for addressing a growing market demand for medical packaging in the region.
The company says a need for better and more readily available healthcare packaging is rapidly increasing across South East Asia.
“With the Asia Pacific healthcare packaging market expected to grow at more than 8% through 2026, Amcor is laying the foundation to support that growth with this advanced facility in the region,” says Amcor’s chief commercial officer, Peter Konieczny.
“Our innovative and regional approach in this space, coupled with our commitment to [environmental] sustainability, will ensure our continued industry leadership for customers of all sizes, and the environment.”
The Tuas facility
The Tuas facility comprises cleanroom manufacturing environments, capability in three-, seven- and nine-layer co-extrusion blown film, and state-of-the-art flexographic printing. It is also fully certified to ISO 13485, ensuring the ability to fully satisfy industry regulatory requirements.
As part of a global initiative to expand the reach of Amcor’s innovation network, the company is establishing an innovation center for healthcare films in the Singapore facility, driving advancement in co-extrusion blown film technology.
The Amcor AmSky monomaterial blister packs.The packaging giant says it will leverage its global product platform and the strengthened innovation capabilities enabled by this new center to bring “new technologies, innovations and compelling products” to market in Asia Pacific.
“Our new Singapore facility is a meaningful step toward expanding our product offerings and increasing our capacity to support customer growth, now and well into the future,” says Scott Jackson, Amcor’s general manager for Southeast Asia healthcare.
The environmental catalyst
Increasing consumer demand for more environmentally sustainable products is driving innovation in healthcare packaging. Amcor claims to be leading by example, having previously pledged to make all of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025.
The new facility in Singapore uses printing technology that is water-based with no solvent emissions. Its multilayer blown films can produce recycle-ready products and its multilayer film technology allows new product innovation with a lower carbon footprint.
Previously, Amcor also began customer trials for its new mono-material, recyclable polyethylene blister packs in what it claims is a “breakthrough” for pharmaceutical packaging.
Branded AmSky, the packs eliminate polyvinyl chloride, which makes recycling difficult due to its chlorine content.
Edited
By Louis Gore-Langton
