Publish Date: October 2026
Updated Tariff & Recession Risk Analysis and Forecasts
The 2026 Plastic Film & Packaging Production Market Report covers the $15.5 billion industry which manufactures flexible polymeric materials with engineered performance characteristics for diverse packaging, agricultural, construction, and specialized industrial applications. Competitive structure features both integrated resin producers with film divisions and specialized manufacturers focused on particular film technologies. Market requirements increasingly emphasize barrier properties, clarity, strength characteristics, and increasingly sustainable attributes addressing growing environmental concerns. Manufacturers face challenges balancing processing technology requirements, material engineering, production efficiency, and tariff considerations affecting both polymer imports and international market access. Successful companies establish advantages through advanced extrusion technologies creating enhanced properties, material science expertise optimizing performance characteristics, efficient production systems controlling costs, and increasingly sustainable initiatives incorporating recycled content or developing compostable alternatives in a sector where both technical capabilities and environmental credentials increasingly determine competitive positioning across diverse film applications.
Plastic Film & Packaging Production Industry Description
Plastic Film & Packaging Production manufactures thin, flexible plastic sheets used for wrapping, packaging, and countless industrial applications. Companies extrude resins into continuous films with controlled thickness, clarity, barrier properties, and surface characteristics, then convert these into finished packaging through printing, laminating, and fabricating. These businesses serve food processors, consumer products companies, and industrial users with materials providing product protection, extended shelf life, and marketing presentation. The industry develops increasingly sophisticated multilayer films and specialty performance films, while addressing sustainability through material reduction, recyclable structures, and renewable content alternatives.
NAICS Code: 326112
Number of Companies: 280
Number of Plants / Facilities: 375
Total Employees: 32,637
Market Size: $15.5 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 plastic film & packaging production sector.
Estimated Tariff Cost: $820 million
Relative Tariff Impact: VERY HIGH
Plastic Film & Packaging Production Report Format
The 2026 U.S. Plastic Film & Packaging 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, 26 expense categories, financial ratio benchmarks, forecasts on 100+ data sets, inventory trends & analysis, detailed breakdown of 31 balance sheet items, company segmentation analysis, industry concentration analysis, material costs benchmarks, profitability metrics, state metrics analysis, plant capacity analysis, workforce composition, inflation trend benchmarks, employee pay analysis, in-depth productivity analysis, 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
Explore the below table of contents to understand the comprehensive insights in the report and why thousands of professionals and executives count on Kentley Insights for their industry research.
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 plastic film & packaging production sector. Our analysts develop the forecasts utilizing econometric models based on historical statistical analysis, industry trends and dynamics, macroeconomic analysis & forecasts.
1-2 – Market Report Overview & Contents
3 – Market Overview
– Data Sources & Methodology
– Sector Definition & Examples
– Market Commentary
4 – Report Synopsis – Revenue & Growth
5 – Report Synopsis – Costs & Profitability
SECTION ONE
REVENUE & GROWTH
7 – Market Size Details
– Industry Revenues, Companies, & Facilities
– Analysis 2017-2025
– 2026 & 2030 Forecasts
8 – Growth Benchmarks
– Sales per Company and Plant
– Analysis 2017-2025
– 2026 & 2030 Forecasts
9 – Product Lines Revenue
10 – BCG Matrix – Income vs. Revenue Growth
11 – Total Industry Sales by Month & Year (2021-2025)
12 – Inventory Value by Month & Year (2021-2025)
13 – Months of Inventory (2021-2025)
14 – Sector Revenue by Segments
– Business Concentration, Size, & Structure
15 – Market Size by State
– Market Size and Rankings
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
25 – Revenue per Company by Segments
26 – Revenue per Facility by State
27 – Revenue per Facility by Segment
28 – Subsector Market Size & Growth
29 – Subsector Sales per Company & Plant
30 – 5-Year Consolidation Analysis
31 – Employment Consolidation Analysis
32 – Subsector Consolidation Analysis
– Number of Companies & Facilities
33 – Subsector Consolidation Analysis
– Facilities & Employees per Company
COST, CAPITAL & FINANCIALS
35 – Profitability & Financial Ratio Analysis
Page 36 – Balance Sheet Metrics
– Assets and Liabilities indexed to industry revenue at 100
– 16 Current & Non-Current Assets Categories
– 15 Short-term, Long-term Liabilities, & Net Worth
37 – OPEX
– Industry OPEX Analysis
– 2017-2025 Trends, 2026 & 2030 Forecasts
38 – OPEX by Company & Plant
– OPEX per Company & Plant
– 2017-2025 Trends, 2026 & 2030 Forecasts
Page 39 – OPEX Detail
– 6 Employee Expense Categories
– 8 Cost of Material Categories
– 6 Buildings and Equipment Categories
– 8 Other Operating Expense Categories
-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
– 2017-2025 Trends, 2026 & 2030 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 Number of Employees
– Employees per Company
– 2017-2025 Trends, 2026 & 2030 Forecasts
45 – Employee Productivity by Segments
46 – Employee Productivity by State
47 –Subsector Sales & Payroll per Employee
48 – Payroll
– Payroll per Employee, Company, & Plant
– 2017-2025 Trends, 2026 & 2030 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 – Employee Composition
– % of Employees for 27 Job Categories
54 – Job Categorization Pay Ranges
– Pay Bands – Bottom 10% & 25%, Mean, Top 25% & 10%
55 – Top 20 Jobs Breakdown
56 – Top 20 Jobs Pay
– Pay Bands
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 Plastic Film & Packaging Production Market Report has the same layout and data sets as the sample report.
Product Lines, Materials, and Jobs Covered in Report
PRODUCT LINES
Single-web film, rolls, and sheets, including coextruded, for flexible packaging uses
Film/film multiweb laminated rolls and sheets, excluding foil, for flexible packaging uses
Plastics packaging film and sheet (including laminated) manufacturing, nsk, total
MATERIAL COST CATEGORIES
Materials, ingredients, containers, and supplies, nsk
Thermoplastic and thermosetting resins and plastics materials
Plastics products (including packaging, foam products, film, sheet, rod, tube, fabricated shapes, bottles, etc.)
Cost of all other materials and components, parts, containers, and supplies consumed
Printing inks
Paper and paperboard products
Adhesives and glues
INDUSTRY JOBS ANALYZED
Molders and Molding Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators
Laborers and Material Movers, Hand
Forming Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers
Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers
Miscellaneous Production Workers
Machine Tool Cutting Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
Industrial Machinery Installation, Repair, and Maintenance Workers
Shipping, Receiving, and Traffic Clerks
Maintenance and Repair Workers, General
Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing
Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
Industrial Engineers, Including Health and Safety
General and Operations Managers
Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators
Customer Service Representatives
Industrial Production Managers
Computer Control Programmers and Operators
About Kentley Insights
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