Resin Pricing

Resin prices were flat last week, and trading did not skip a beat as the calendar flipped to October and processors scurried to fill in supply shortfalls.

Heavy demand from both processors and resellers came up against insufficient supplies last week caused by lingering production disruptions. 

Widespread damage and ongoing Louisiana power outages in the wake of Hurricane Laura kept some polyethylene and polypropylene producing plants from restarting. The production shortfall has become more evident and the supply/demand imbalance more...

Prices for both PE and PP resins were already on the rise before Hurricane Laura and then jumped in chunks over the past several weeks. Meanwhile, more storms are forming in the Atlantic, with at least one targeting the Gulf Coast.

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...