The Appeal

Plastics and chemicals, unions and Unionchimica united front to safeguard the supply chain

Price increases and difficulties on the supply side due to the war in the Middle East weigh heavily

by Davide Madeddu

23 April 2026

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3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

From monitoring raw material prices to social shock absorbers, passing through energy and transport costs. It is a joint appeal that the Filctem, Femca and Uiltec trade unions and the Unionchimica Confapi organisations are launching to the institutions to safeguard the plastics and chemicals supply chain 'at risk due to the conflict in the Middle East'.

Difficulties due to price rises

"The exceptional price increases that are being recorded, together with the growing difficulties on the procurement front," emphasises Daniela Ramello, President of Unionchimica, "point to a serious risk of shortages with knock-on effects throughout the supply chain

Between February and March 2026, the price of polymers in granules, as denounced by the organisations' representatives, has risen by as much as 25% to 60/70%, dragging up even regranulates and thus cancelling out the economic advantage of recycling. Even the price of resins "is undergoing increases ranging between 12% and 35%, depending on the chemical nature, leading to much larger and unprecedented rises in all products derived from them".

Not only increases but stock emergency

That's not all, however, because also worrying for the companies is the chapter on supplies, as well as the fact that, very often, increases also concern materials of non-Middle Eastern or Asian origin. "For our small and medium-sized industries, however, the increase in costs is only part of the problem: the risk of running out of stock is in fact starting to become concrete and increasingly worrying," the president continues. We are facing an operational and financial crisis, with an objective difficulty in planning production even in the very short term, and a strong erosion of industrial margins that are putting production continuity at serious risk'.

Unions concerned

Looking with concern at the effects of the conflict, both in the immediate and in the perspective, are the representatives of the trade unions dealing with the sector.

"In the short term, there is great concern about the indiscriminate increase in prices and utilities that may affect families,' stress Marco Falcinelli, Nora Garofalo, and Daniela Piras, national secretaries of Filctem, Femca, and Uiltec, respectively. 'In the medium term, on the other hand, a downward spiral could be triggered that would jeopardise employment, the transparency of business relations, and full compliance with the labour contracts applied.

Company collaboration trade unions

Hence the start of a collaboration process 'to protect the world of business and labour'. "Faced with this scenario, we are strongly concerned about the sector's employment situation, because almost always," the three national secretaries emphasise, "the need to reduce costs hits the weakest chain of the system, i.e. the workers, who could be faced with radical choices by companies, with major impacts on the size levels of companies in terms of employment, and with dramatic social repercussions.

The demands

Hence the joint and urgent request for 'continuous monitoring of price trends, extraordinary measures to support the liquidity of companies and refinancing of social shock absorbers, as well as interventions to ensure the continuity of supplies an action at the national and European level to sterilise energy and transport costs, both for companies and workers, which already have a significant impact on the productivity of companies and on the family budgets of citizens'.