From Die Heads to Complete-Equipment Exports: Horng Tair Industrial Uses 10-Layer Blown Film Technology to Target the Global High-Value Packaging Market

<Excerpted from the Commercial Times>

Known for high precision and high customization, Taiwan's plastics and rubber machinery industry is accelerating its move toward higher value and stronger branding. Horng Tair Industrial (7518), which has long cultivated the blown film die head market, has in recent years successfully completed the transformation from a die head supplier to a complete equipment manufacturer. By mastering core blown film extrusion technology, developing its own brands and deploying globally, the company has become an important representative of Taiwan's high-end blown film equipment sector.

The global packaging industry is entering a golden cycle of equipment replacement. Market research indicates the global blown film machine market is estimated to reach US$5.23 billion in 2026 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of about 7.9%, potentially exceeding US$8.3 billion by 2032. Rapid growth in demand for Food Packaging, Medical Film, pharmaceuticals and high-barrier packaging, together with net-zero targets, the circular economy and ESG governance becoming new procurement standards for global brands, is driving blown film equipment toward higher performance, higher energy efficiency and higher added value.

Global low-carbon wave drives equipment upgrades — blown film machine market welcomes new high-value opportunities

With environmental regulations such as the EU's CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism) and RoHS gradually being implemented, international buyers are no longer only comparing equipment prices but increasingly focusing on energy efficiency, raw material utilization, carbon footprint and waste recycling capability. Future competition in the plastics and rubber machinery industry will shift from "price competition" to "low-carbon competition", and equipment manufacturers with energy-saving, material-saving and recycling technologies will be the biggest beneficiaries amid global supply-chain restructuring.

Horng Tair Industrial has continued investing in high-end blown film technology, vertical integration and intelligent management. This year the company was honored with the 2026 Dun & Bradstreet Taiwan SME Elite Award, reflecting Horng Tair's achievements in digital transformation and business resilience.

At its founding, Horng Tair Industrial focused on R&D of blown film die heads. In 2005 it actively expanded overseas and subsequently established locations in Kunshan and Guangdong, China; in 2014 it partnered with Germany's PLAST-CONTROL, and in 2015 began technical collaboration with Japan's PLACO, continuously improving its blown film equipment integration capabilities. The company has established a one-stop service model from blown film die head design, mechanical design, component processing and complete equipment assembly to commissioning and validation at blown film plants.

Horng Tair Industrial's Executive Director Wu Song-en said the company is currently a Taiwanese equipment manufacturer capable of mass-producing nine-layer and ten-layer blown film machines. The newly developed 10 Layer Barrier Film Die Head for co-extruded blown film adopts an oblique-stacked flow channel design, which allows more uniform material distribution across layers and more flexible layer combinations. While enabling more diverse raw material choices, it substantially improves barrier performance and environmental resistance, complies with EU RoHS standards, and is widely applied in Food Packaging, Medical Film, pharmaceuticals and optical high-value packaging markets.

In recent years Horng Tair has also established a "Design in One Location, Service in Three Locations" operating model, using Taiwan as the R&D center combined with China for integration and Vietnam as a production pilot base and service hub, balancing product development speed (Time to Market) and complete-equipment practical operation. This effectively shortens equipment lead times and improves understanding of customers' real needs, enhancing global market competitiveness.

Beyond technical upgrades, Horng Tair Industrial is actively promoting brand management and sustainable transformation. Currently the product mix is 56% blown film die heads, 36% blown film machines, 5% plastic film and 3% contract manufacturing; revenue from its own brands has exceeded 70%, indicating the company has successfully transformed from traditional OEM manufacturing to a high-value equipment supplier centered on proprietary brands.

Facing the global decarbonization trend, Horng Tair is simultaneously investing in green equipment R&D, launching blown film equipment for degradable raw materials and recycled-material blown film machines. It can also recycle edge trim and production waste back into raw material pellets to increase material circularity, reduce plastic waste and production costs. At the same time, the company's new-generation five-layer blown film machine, through die head flow channel optimization, can reduce plastic raw material usage by about 4%; a redesigned die head shortens material changeover time and reduces material waste. Calculated at an output of 900 kilograms per hour and 7,200 operating hours per year, each machine can save about 260 tonnes of plastic raw material per year; using an emission factor of about 2.06 kilograms of CO2 per kilogram of plastic, this equates to a reduction of over 530 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year (about 1.128 million kWh), equivalent to the annual carbon absorption of 1.37 Daan Forest Parks. This helps brand owners achieve carbon reduction targets and highlights that equipment energy-saving benefits are increasingly becoming an important criterion in international procurement.

Executive Director Wu Song-en said the company will continue to deepen its layout with five major strategies — “technology upgrade, vertical integration, brand management, smart decision-making, circular sustainability” — and will unveil a new generation of high-performance blown film equipment at TaipeiPLAS 2026 (2026 Taipei International Plastics & Rubber Industry Show), demonstrating Taiwan’s plastics and rubber machinery industry’s technical strength in moving from core components to complete-machine exports.

Industry insiders believe that at the intersection of AI, low-carbon manufacturing and the circular economy, the global blown film equipment market has moved beyond simple equipment competition toward comprehensive competition in technology, branding, intelligent management and sustainability value. Leveraging its proprietary blown film die heads, 10-layer co-extrusion core technology, one-stop complete-equipment manufacturing capability, and strategies for intelligent and low-carbon development, Horng Tair Industrial is steadily establishing an important position in the global high-end blown film equipment supply chain and setting a new benchmark for the high-value development of Taiwan's plastics and rubber machinery industry.