The European Pallet Association eV (EPAL) reports 121.8 million produced and repaired EPAL pallets in 2018. Compared to the previous year, this represents an increase of 5.2% (2017: 115.8 million units). Looking at production and repair separately, a total of 93.9 million EPAL pallets were produced in 2018, 6.3% more than in 2017. As in the previous year, the repair figures are stable at 27.5 million units. With 408,076 lattice boxes produced, the result in this segment was plus 30% compared to 2017.
Christian Kühnhold, CEO of EPAL, attributes the positive development to the intensive work of all licensees, but also to the stable strong demand in the FMCG sector, in the general and automotive supply industries. Kühnhold sees further developments of the exchange pool in the intelligent EPAL range or the market launch of new load carriers, such as the independently tested EPAL CP pallets.
EPAL was founded in 1991 as an umbrella organization of licensed manufacturers and repairers of EPAL pallets. The registered association is represented in over 30 countries by 14 national committees, which have committed themselves to the national implementation of the EPAL objectives.