Recent turbulence in the raw material supply chain is forcing Europe’s leading fresh food packaging manufacturer, LINPAC to increase its rigid and flexible packaging prices, but this will not impact the Australian market.
The company said that since March, unprecedented production issues have been reported across the European petrochemical industry, driving tight polymer supply which, when coupled with strengthening demand, has led to sharp price increases for both monomers and polymers.
According to Bart Stubbe, director of purchasing at LINPAC, the company has seen a "record series of force majeure declarations from suppliers, a lack of product availability in some cases and soaring polymer prices across Europe".
LINPAC today operates 18 plants (including one in Melbourne and one in Perth) supplying over 70 countries around the world with a wide range of high quality rigid and flexible packaging solutions for the food industry.
Daniel Dayan, LINPAC CEO, commented: “We pride ourselves on delivering reliable, high quality, rigid and flexible packaging solutions for fresh food to leading retailers, packers and distributors around the world. Despite our on-going efforts to improve efficiencies and the performance of our products through innovative design, the difficult cost situation we are facing means price increases have become inevitable."
A spokesperson for LINPAC told PKN that "the cost volatility relates to the nuances in the European petro-chemicals industry and is not affecting the Asian petro-chemicals market, so Australia will not be affected".
