Plastic packaging demand grows despite swelling prices.(packaging materials)(government insists...

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Plastic packaging protects delicate or perishable items as they pass through the supply chain. High raw-material costs-mostly plastic resins-have dented profit margins even though suppliers have successfully implemented some price increases.

However, longer supply chains and just-in-time manufacturing have created more shipments of small packages over greater distances, says analyst Matthew Warren at market researcher Morningstar in Chicago. Also, quickly growing Internet retail sales drive deliveries of small packages to households rather than trucklo