Why have carton factory prices surged repeatedly recently?

The National Day holiday has just ended, and price-increase notices for base paper and corrugated board have followed in quick succession. Amid this rapid wave of price hikes, carton manufacturers—who had previously absorbed cost pressures silently—have finally reached their limit and issued their own price-increase notifications to pass on cost burdens to downstream customers. Ruilong Packaging Technology Co., Ltd. (Rudong) Effective from October 5, all prices will increase by 10% over previous levels. Wuxi Ganshang Packaging Materials Co., Ltd. Effective from October 7, base prices will increase by 10% over previous levels. According to reports by CCTV Finance, since August alone, certain paper manufacturers have issued as many as ten price-increase notices for packaging papers such as kraft linerboard and corrugated medium, with each hike ranging from RMB 30 to 50 per ton—resulting in a cumulative increase of RMB 300–350 per ton, or approximately 10% to 15%. Now that the dual National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holidays are over, the upward pricing trend in the paper and packaging markets shows no sign of abating. Beyond upstream papermakers, multiple packaging enterprises in Hubei and Hunan provinces have again issued corrugated board price-increase notices, with hikes averaging around 3%. Clearly, this wave of price increases continues unabated, and price transmission is actively occurring across the industrial chain. Below are excerpts from some corrugated board price-increase notices: Jialong Environmental Packaging Co., Ltd. (Hunan) Effective from 6:00 p.m. on October 7 for all orders received thereafter, all corrugated board prices will increase by 3%.

Base paper prices rise again by RMB 50 per ton! How can packaging enterprises break through this impasse? CIPPME 2027 Shanghai Packaging Exhibition offers new industry solutions.

Starting in late August, price-increase notices from the papermaking industry were once again issued intensively. According to the latest market feedback, the second round of price adjustments in August has already been implemented in practice, with mainstream packaging papers—including kraft linerboard and high-strength corrugated medium—increasing by RMB 50 per ton. For paper packaging enterprises already operating on razor-thin margins, this round of ‘small but frequent’ price hikes has further intensified cost-side pressure. As raw material price volatility becomes the norm, relying solely on passing costs onto end customers via price hikes has grown increasingly difficult. Instead, improving efficiency upstream in the supply chain—and capturing profits through new materials and new technologies—has become an industry-wide consensus. It is precisely against this backdrop that the CIPPME 2027 Shanghai International Packaging Products & Materials Exhibition, scheduled for June 1–3, 2027 at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center (Pudong New Area), is regarded by industry insiders as a critical barometer for identifying breakthroughs in cost reduction and efficiency enhancement in the next cycle. Cost pressure drives industrial upgrading; the exhibition focuses on ‘substitution’ and ‘reduction’ Looking at market trends over the past two years, cyclical fluctuations in base paper prices are no longer short-term phenomena. While large-scale packaging plants may buffer the impact of a RMB 50-per-ton increase through bulk procurement negotiations and inventory management, numerous small- and medium-sized enterprises face immediate erosion of order profitability. Industry pain points clearly point in two directions: first, whether performance-equivalent yet lower-cost alternative materials can be found; and second, whether process improvements can reduce material usage. According to organizers of CIPPME, the 2027 Shanghai exhibition will significantly expand exhibition space dedicated to ‘New Packaging Materials’ and ‘Green Packaging Solutions’. Technologies and materials that drew strong attention at previous editions—including low-grammage, high-strength corrugated board; non-wood fiber materials such as bamboo pulp and bagasse pulp; and functional coating technologies replacing traditional polyethylene extrusion-lamination—will be showcased collectively at this edition. The maturity of these technologies and materials has markedly improved over the past two years, transitioning from laboratory settings into large-scale production—providing packaging enterprises with tangible ‘Plan B’ options during periods of rising base paper prices. From ‘buying materials’ to ‘calculating total cost’: supply-chain collaboration emerges as a key highlight Notably, packaging enterprises’ cost anxieties now extend well beyond base paper alone. The compounding effects of ink, adhesives, energy consumption, and even logistics costs mean that savings achieved at any single link are insufficient to reverse overall profitability challenges. This also explains why equipment manufacturers and system integrators have registered in large numbers during the exhibitor recruitment phase for CIPPME 2027: industry demand is shifting—from ‘procuring individual items’ toward ‘optimizing total cost’.

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