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A Plastic Factory Feels the Sting of Rising Energy Prices



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Long before President Vladimir V. Putin unleashed his war on Ukraine, Mosharraf Khalid was already contending with an expensive, bewildering and unrelenting assortment of problems afflicting the global supply chain.His company, Royal Interpack North America, makes plastic packaging for fresh fruit. Last year, its raw materials were routinely stuck for weeks on container ships left floating in traffic jams off the overwhelmed port of Long Beach. This past week, Mr. Khalid’s business was hit with another confounding variable when President Biden announced a ban on imports of Russian oil.Mr. Biden’s oil ban is not expected to leave the United States short much crude. But less oil landing on world markets — the result of the American ban on Russian sales — spells higher energy prices everywhere. It also means higher prices for petroleum products like plastic, whose prices track oil. Even the recycled plastic chips that Mr. Khalid’s company depends on as the primary ingredient …

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