The Iran war is hitting packaging supply chains. Are the impacts temporary?

Packaging Dive reported the development on 2026-03-19. Higher fuel and material costs, shipping disruptions and consumer spending are playing into industry impacts. Certain packaging substrates, such as plastics, bear a greater burden than others.

The report places the news in a wider commercial context. As the Iran war approaches the one-month mark, impacts to the packaging industry are materializing. Some substrates, such as plastics, are especially feeling the initial effects, but the reach is expected to spread if the conflict drags on, experts say. Uncertainty with that timing and whether industry impacts will be short-term or long-term has packaging leaders on watch.

For the food sector, the practical implications extend beyond the immediate announcement. Major publicly traded packaging companies' most recent earnings calls largely occurred just before the war began, so executives did not address the topic at that time. But analysts have been sporadically divulging information about effects and adjusting their projections as information becomes available.

Attention now turns to how companies, customers and regulators respond. An earlier BofA note, on March 6, pointed to companies feeling the effects of the rapid oil price increases, which manifest in the form of higher transport costs. Generally speaking, every $10 per barrel increase in oil prices translates to a few cents per pound increased costs for plastic packaging producers, according to Staphos.