Publish Date: September 2026
Updated Tariff & Recession Risk Analysis and Forecasts
The 2026 Paper Bag & Coated Paper Production Market Report covers the $23.1 billion industry which manufactures specialized paper products enhanced through converting processes including coating, laminating, and bag forming. Competitive structure includes both integrated paper companies with converting operations and specialized manufacturers focused on particular converting technologies. Market demands increasingly emphasize functional performance, barrier properties, sustainability attributes, and specialized characteristics addressing specific application requirements. Manufacturers face challenges balancing specialized equipment utilization, material engineering, coating formulation expertise, and tariff implications affecting both base paper imports and chemical additives. Industry leaders differentiate through advanced converting technologies creating enhanced properties, specialized coating capabilities addressing premium applications, innovative design features enhancing functionality, and sustainability initiatives reducing environmental impact in a sector where both technical capabilities and increasing environmental credentials determine competitive positioning across diverse converted paper product categories.
Paper Bag & Coated Paper Production Industry Description
Paper Bag & Coated Paper Production manufactures flexible packaging including bags, sacks, pouches, and coated or laminated papers with enhanced properties. Companies transform paper into flexible containers and functional materials through cutting, folding, printing, coating, and laminating operations. Manufacturing processes include paper converting, extrusion coating, adhesive laminating, printing, and bag forming operations that create flexible packaging solutions. These businesses serve retail, grocery, and industrial markets. The industry continuously improves barrier properties, printing capabilities, and increasingly focuses on sustainable alternatives to plastic, compostable materials, and innovative paper-based flexible packaging options.
NAICS Code: 32222
Number of Companies: 543
Number of Plants / Facilities: 696
Total Employees: 46,496
Market Size: $23.1 billion
TARIFF IMPACT (Summer 2025 – Download Report for Updated Analysis)
This report has in-depth analysis on the recent US tariff changes on material costs, quantifying import dependencies, tariff exposure rates, and key source countries for the paper bag & coated paper production sector.
Estimated Tariff Cost: $600 million
Relative Tariff Impact: HIGH
Paper Bag & Coated Paper Production Report Format
The 2026 U.S. Paper Bag & Coated Paper Production Market Report is 63 pages of deep insights into the trends, dynamics, and forecasts shaping the industry. Professionals leverage this market report to develop a deep understanding of the market for business strategy, planning, forecasting, benchmarking, industry analysis, valuations, identifying organizational inefficiencies, financial analysis, and more.
The report has over 100 industry statistical data sets with historicals (2017-2025), trend analysis, and forecasts for 2026 and the next 5 years. The report includes market size & growth, detailed breakdown on 26 expenses, dozens of financial metrics, forecasts on 100+ data sets, plant inventory analysis, detailed breakdown of 31 balance sheet items, numerous industry segmentations, industry concentration analysis, material costs benchmarks, profitability metrics, state metrics analysis, plant productivity benchmarks, organizational breakdown, inflation trend benchmarks, compensation analysis, employee productivity benchmarks, and more.
Below are a few page images from the report and check out the table of contents for a complete overview.
Report Table of Contents
Evaluate the table of contents to appreciate why thousands of professionals, bankers, consultants, accountants, and other executives rely on Kentley Insights for data-rich industry insights.
For this report, the core data is sourced from comprehensive business, operational, and economic surveys conducted by government and private institutions and filled out by a statistically significant number of companies in the paper bag & coated paper production industry. Our forecasts take into account historical trends, industry dynamics, and our macroeconomic projections.
1-2 – Market Report Overview & Contents
3 – Market Overview
– Data Sources, Industry Definition & Market Commentary
4 – Market Synopsis – Revenue & Growth
5 – Market Synopsis – Costs & Profitability
SECTION ONE
REVENUE & GROWTH ANALYSIS
7 – Market Size Details
– Industry Revenues, Companies & Facilities
– Trend Analysis 2017-2025
– 2026 & 2030 Forecasts
8 – Growth Benchmarks
– Sales per Company & Plant
– Trend Analysis 2017-2025
– 2026 & 2030 Forecasts
9 – Product Lines Revenue
– Percentage of Revenue from Product Lines
10 – BCG Matrix – Net Income vs. Revenue Growth
– Subsectors vs. Industry
11 – Total Sales by Month & Year
– 2021-2025 Sales per Month
12 – Inventory Value by Month & Year
– Inventory Value per Month for 2021-2025
13 – Months of Inventory
– Months of Inventory per Month for 2021-2025
14 – Sector Revenue by Segments
– Concentration Segments by Top Companies
– Business Size Segments
– Business Structure Segments
15 – Market Size by State
16 – Market Size as a % of State GDP
17 – Sales as a % of State Manufacturing
18 – Market Segmentation by Business Size
19 – Market Segmentation by Business Size
– Business Size Segments – 1-4, 5-9, 10-20, 21-50, 51-100, 101-250, & 250+ employees
– Companies, Facilities, Sales, Employees & Payroll
20 – Segmentation by Concentration (Top 50 Companies)
– Concentration Segments – Top 4, 5-8, 9-20, & 21-50 companies
– Companies, Facilities, Sales, Employees & Payroll
21 – Market Share of Top 50 Companies
22 – Subsector Market Share of Top 50 Companies
23 – Segmentation by Business Structure
– Business Structure Segments – C-Corporations, S-Corporations, Partnerships, & Sole Proprietorships
– Companies, Facilities, Sales, Employees & Payroll
24 – Revenue per Company by State
– Revenue per Company
25 – Revenue per Company by Segments
26 – Revenue per Facility by State
27 – Revenue per Facility by Segment
– Business Size, Concentration, & Structure
28 – Subsector Growth
– Sales and 5-Year Growth
29 – Subsector Statistics
– Sales per Company & Facility, and 5-Year Growth
30 – Consolidation Analysis
– 5-Year Growth of Companies & Locations
31 – Employment Consolidation Analysis
– 5-Year Growth of Employee Statistics
32 – Subsector Consolidation Analysis
– Number of Companies & Facilities
– 5-Year Growth
33 – Subsector Consolidation Analysis
– Facilities per Company
– Employees per Company
– 5-Year Growth
SECTION TWO
COST, CAPITAL & PROFIT BENCHMARKS
35 – Profitability & Financial Ratio Analysis
– Percent of Companies that are Profitable
– Average Net Income as a Percent of Revenue
– 10 of the Top Financial Ratios
– Assets and Liabilities indexed to industry revenue at 100
– Current & Non-Current Assets: 14 Categories
– Short-term, Long-term Liabilities, & Net Worth: 13 Categories
37 – OPEX
– Industry OPEX
– Revenue vs. OPEX Growth
– OPEX as a Percent of Revenue
– Trend Analysis 2017-2025
– 2026 & 2030 Forecasts
38 – OPEX by Company & Plant
– OPEX per Company & Facility
– Revenue vs. Expenses Growth per Plant
– Trend Analysis & Forecasts
Page 39 – OPEX Detail
– Employee Expenses: payroll, insurance, pension, defined contribution plans, fringe benefits, temps
– Cost of Materials: materials, parts, containers, packaging, cost of resale, electricity and fuels, contract work
– Buildings and Equipment: capex for equipment, rental or lease for equipment, capex for buildings and structures, rental or leases, repair and maintenance
– Other Operating Expenses: professional and technical services, IT software and hardware, data processing and communications, advertising, refuse removal, taxes and license fees, other
-Inventory Breakdown: finished goods, work-in-progress, materials and supplies
40 – Production Material Costs & Tariff Analysis
– Top Production Material Costs Breakdown
– Industry & Material Tariff Analysis – % of costs, import %, tariff costs, source countries
41 – Producer Pricing Index
– Annual PPI – Indexed to 2006
– Trend Analysis & Forecasts
– Monthly PPI Figures for the Past 4 Years
42 – Plant Utilization & Hours
– Plant Utilization Rate
– Plant Operational Hours per Week
– 2022-2025 Historical Figures by Quarter
43 – Reasons for Non-Full Production
– 7 Categories Quarterly Survey Results for Past 2 Years
44 – Productivity & Employment
– Revenue per Employee
– Total Employees
– Employees per Company
– Trend Analysis & Forecasts
45 – Employee Productivity by Segments
– Business Size, Concentration, & Structure
46 – Employee Productivity by State
47 –Subsector Sales & Payroll per Employee
– Absolute & 5-Year Growth
48 – Payroll Analysis
– Payroll per Employee, Company & Plant
– Trend Analysis & Forecasts
49 – Payroll per Company by Segments
50 – Payroll per Plant by Segments
51 – Payroll per Employee by Segments
52 – Payroll per Employee by State
53 – Organizational Composition
– % of Employees for 27 Job Categories
– Management & Finance
– Sales & Marketing
– Technology, Engineering, Science
– Service, Support & Training
– Operations
54 – Job Categorization Pay Ranges
– Management & Finance
– Sales, Service & Marketing
– Operations
– Pay Bands – Bottom 10% & 25%, Mean, Top 25% & 10%
55 – Top 20 Jobs Breakdown
56 – Top 20 Jobs Pay
57 – Employees per Company by Segments
58 – Employees per Plant by Segments
59 – Facilities per Company by Segments
60 – Total Employment by State
61 – Population to Every Employee by State
62 – Employees per Facility by State
63 – Overview of Kentley Insights
Download a Sample Report
Below is a free sample report download. The 2026 Paper Bag & Coated Paper Production Market Report has the same layout and data sets as the sample report.
Product Lines, Materials, and Jobs Covered in Report
PRODUCT LINES
Pressure-sensitive products
Other coated and processed papers, excluding for packaging uses
Laminated aluminum foil rolls and sheets for flexible packaging uses (converting and printing or converting only)
Printing paper, coated at establishments other than where paper was produced
Uncoated single-web paper grocers’ bags and sacks and variety and shopping bags
Single-web paper, rolls and sheets, including waxed, for flexible packaging uses
Shipping sacks and multiwall bags, all materials, excluding textiles
Pasted, lined, laminated, or surface-coated paperboard
Multiweb laminated rolls and sheets, excluding foil, for flexible packaging uses
Paper bag and coated and treated paper manufacturing, nsk, total
MATERIAL COST CATEGORIES
Paper and paperboard products
Materials, ingredients, containers, and supplies, nsk
Cost of all other materials and components, parts, containers, and supplies consumed
Plastics products (including packaging, foam products, film, sheet, rod, tube, fabricated shapes, bottles, etc.)
Adhesives and glues
Thermoplastic and thermosetting resins and plastics materials
Aluminum and aluminum-base alloy sheet, plate, foil (including packaging products), and welded tubing
Printing inks
Woven textile fabrics, including broadwoven and narrow fabrics
Nonwoven textile fabrics, including knits, felts, etc.
INDUSTRY JOBS ANALYZED
Miscellaneous Production Workers
Laborers and Material Movers, Hand
Printing Workers
First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers
Cutting Workers
Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators
Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders
Industrial Machinery Installation, Repair, and Maintenance Workers
Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing
Shipping, Receiving, and Traffic Clerks
Customer Service Representatives
Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers
Maintenance and Repair Workers, General
Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators
General and Operations Managers
Driver/Sales Workers and Truck Drivers
Painting Workers
Industrial Production Managers
Designers
Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
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