What’s the Next Move

Spiraling energy costs

While the world of package printing has been in a phase of active change in the last year, one factor has affected it more than any other: the high cost of oil. Films and plastic substrates, inks, adhesives, and many other items that are involved in the package-printing world, as well as shipping and transportation, have all seen cost increases that show no signs of receding. Upwardly-spiraling costs for the production of materials and for printing or otherwise decorating them, have negatively affected the profitability of the whole packaging industry, particularly as the demand side of the value chain continues to be reluctant to accept price increases in the face of an intensely-competitive business environment.