Plastic Raw Material Prices Keep Falling as Low-Cost Plastic Packaging Pressures Paper Packaging

Plastic raw material prices continue to fall, and low-cost plastic packaging is pressuring the paper packaging market.

International Packaging Information Network

Against the backdrop of a global economic recession, the plastics industry is being squeezed from both sides: severely weak downstream demand and a pullback in upstream crude oil. As a result, the plastics index has continued to slide.

Over the past two months, the biggest headache for factories has been

"order anxiety"! The post-pandemic shock to China's consumer market is becoming more pronounced, overseas orders remain highly uncertain, and market confidence has been badly hurt.

Declines have occurred to varying degrees across the board, among which

The market tends to buy on gains and hold back on losses. In the current climate, this further dampens purchasing enthusiasm. Most players are standing on the sidelines, waiting to see where prices move next:

Plastic packaging has developed in China for a long time and has formed a relatively mature industrial chain. Upstream, it involves the supply of general-purpose plastics, plastic additives and specialized plastic processing equipment; most upstream companies are plastic products manufacturers.

The midstream covers plastic packaging manufacturing, including plastic products such as plastic buckets, plastic bottles and plastic caps, as well as the manufacture of non-shaped products such as plastic tubes and plastic bags. The downstream consists of application sectors, including beverage, food, pharmaceutical, daily chemical and edible oil manufacturing.

The sharp fall in plastic pellets, a bulk raw material, has dealt a heavy blow to the entire packaging industry. Packaging users are generally facing insufficient domestic orders and a cliff-like drop in export orders, and companies urgently need to cut costs to gain breathing room.

As plastic raw materials fall sharply, plastic packaging may drop to rock-bottom prices and, to some extent, cushion the impact of plastic bans and restrictions.

With concerns about economic recession taking shape, order volumes for plastic materials in the market are now falling sharply, and a major rebound for plastics is unlikely in the short term. The cost advantage of plastic packaging will become evident in areas such as e-commerce packaging and cushioning packaging, further hitting the packaging paper market.

—This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-379055.html