Middle East crisis triggers historic raw material shortages and drastic price surges
Business survey on plastic packaging and plastic films
Advertisement
105 manufacturers of plastic packaging and films in Germany report major economic challenges in the IK business survey for the second quarter. The geopolitical tensions in the Middle East are leading to problems in the procurement of raw materials, which - coupled with extreme price increases - are massively jeopardizing the security of supply and delivery capacity of the predominantly medium-sized companies.
Middle East conflict blocks supply chains worldwide
The unprecedented bottleneck on the raw materials markets is reflected in the indicator for the availability of raw materials, which has plummeted: After a still positive value of 13 points at the beginning of the year, the index is now falling to a historic low of -86 points. With reference to the military escalation in the Middle East, many suppliers of packaging plastics are invoking "force majeure" and are no longer supplying at all or only at greatly inflated prices.
Massive price wave hits manufacturers
In the current market situation, packaging manufacturers can only pass on the price increases from raw material suppliers to their own customers to a limited extent. Current data from the GKV survey (March 2026) shows that 99% of packaging manufacturers are facing price increases from suppliers. As the association survey shows, only a few companies are currently able to largely pass on the additional costs to their customers. Where it is possible to pass on costs, e.g. within the framework of price escalation clauses, these are sometimes only applied with a delay. Nevertheless, the earnings situation in the plastic packaging industry is assessed as less negative in the second quarter of 2026 than in the historic crisis quarters of Q2 2021 (pandemic-related supply chain disruptions) and Q2 2022 (war-related energy crisis). However, due to the sharp price increases and limited availability, the signs for the coming weeks are poor, meaning that the situation is currently expected to deteriorate further.
Slight economic recovery, but falling profits
Although half of all respondents expect their profit margins to shrink further in the current quarter, their assessment of the general economic situation in the second quarter of 2026 is slightly less pessimistic than before. The corresponding index value climbed from -67.9 to -51.4 points, but remains clearly in the red. Sales expectations are also comparatively stable at the level of the previous quarter.
Focus: security of supply
"The current combination of supply disruptions and extreme price mark-ups is pushing many of our SMEs to their limits, especially as demand is only just beginning to stabilize. In recent weeks, some plastics producers have been making significant price increases. We are all in the same boat along the value chain in the face of the energy and raw materials crisis and partnership-based efforts are required to ensure security of supply in the long term," explains Dr. Martin Engelmann.
Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.
Other news from the department business & finance
These products might interest you
