Resin Pricing

Strong demand and substantial completed volumes in the spot resin markets last week led to inevitable rising prices as supplies thinned. Two major storms developing in the Gulf of Mexico prompted another wave of resin buying and price hikes.

Producers’ collective PE inventories currently are at their lowest level since November 2018, with some claiming to have no material to sell at any price.

Tighter supply/demand conditions and upward market momentum will lend support to producers’ efforts to implement yet another $0.05/lb price increase for domestic August PE contracts, reports the PlasticsExchange.

A series of turnarounds, outages, and delays coupled with thinning upstream inventories resulting from massive exports has placed the polyethylene (PE) supply/demand balance in a tight situation. Meanwhile, polypropylene inventories are at...

Despite the Fourth of July weekend, participants still came to transact and closed a significant number of deals, as prices for polyethylene and polypropylene ticked higher.

Processors were again searching for very well-priced resin, but by the end of the week, most seemed to recognize that the stellar opportunities available just a few weeks ago were history.

Spot polyethylene prices gained one cent on average last week, while polypropylene went up by a penny for the first time in seven weeks.