5 Short-Term Challenges for the Packaging Industry

A new report from Smithers examines the pandemic’s impact on packaging supply chains and how they might change over the next few years.

With that as the context, the consulting company identified five short-term challenges the industry will have to navigate in the wake of COVID-19:

1. With world packaging demand having dropped across 2019-2020, suppliers need to prioritize and protect essential channels (i.e. food, phamaceuticals, personal care, consumer goods) while remaining flexible enough to aid the more negatively affected channels.
2. Closure of raw material supplier facilities in 2020 has led to a shortage of some materials into 2021.
3. For plastics, resin prices have risen to record levels, as the post-COVID surge in demand has combined with increased shipping costs.
4. The re-emergence of sustainability concerns, including new legislative targets for minimum recycled content in plastic formats.
5. Increased consumer use of ecommerce channels in 2020 and beyond is a positive for the industry, but ecommerce sales also call for compact, sustainable designs and alternative materials.

Read more at Smithers.