State of Plastics Prices February 2018

Here’s this months State of the Market for Plastic Prices, February 2018. I am going to keep this one even shorter and sweeter than last months.  Also including as many of the announcements as I can so that you have them to forward to customers if you need them.

Plastic Prices for February and Looking Forward

PE:  The first EIGHT increase letters I’m sharing below are referencing polyethylene increases.  To save you the time, plastics prices for this material are going up basically $.04/lb for February 1^st, and while I don’t have them all yet another $.03/lb for March 1^st.  This is on top of what they went up all of last year.  These increases are holding because demand for material is so strong, so buy now if you can.

PS:  This is a repeat, but American Styrenics is up $.07 2/1.  This is backed up by Force Majeure at Total and a couple of others.  There was some drop in the price of Benzene at the end of last month, but it is only about 3%, and even though it is cheaper, producers can’t get it converted fast enough to make a difference in price.  Plastics prices for this material are up and going to stay up for at least the next 45-60 days.

PP:  PP is very tight, and this is pushing pricing higher.  I have been saying that it is going to be tight through 2018, and it is coming to pass.  We have seen increases in Plastic Prices of PP of $.05/lb or so this year on spot, and don’t see it coming down anytime soon as material continues to get sucked out of the market by molders.

Nylon:  The new problem child in the market is Nylon.  There are feed stock shortages such as on caprolactam, and price increases on all grades, but looking at anywhere from $.10/lb to $.20/lb.  I am attaching several of the raw feed shortage letters as well as the nylon producer letters to back it up from Radici, BASF, Omni, Celanese, Ravago.  I have not seen it, but expect one out of DuPont anytime now.

Acetal:  I have heard that Celcon might be up as much as $.13/lb in March.  I have an official letter from Kolon that their copolymer acetal is going up $.11/lb on 3/1.

I am attaching a letter from LTL Compounding concerning some other grades as well.

Last is a letter finalizing the sale of Omni to Celanese.  You may want to keep that in mind.

That’s all for this months Plastic Prices update for now.  It may get worse before it gets better.

Plastic Resin Prices for February from Plastics Today

Exxon PE Price Increase Letter Feb. ’18

Formosa PE Price Increase Letter Feb. ’18

Eff 2018_03_01_PE Price Increase_2-1-18

CP Chem PE Price Increase Letter Feb. ’18

Bayport Polymers PE Price Increase Letter Feb. ’18

Westlake PE Price Increase Letter Feb. ’18

Americas Styrenics PS Price Increase Letter Feb. ’18

RMA Hylon NY Price Increase Letter Feb. ’18

Price Announcement 1-24-18

Omni NY Price Increase Letter Feb. ’18

Kolon POM Price Increase Letter Mar. ’18

Celanese Americas LFT NY Price Increase Feb. ’17

BASF -March 1-2018 -Price Increase Notification

BASF Force Majeure Declaration NY 66 Intermidaries Jan. 2018

AdvanSix announces Force Majeure Caprolactam & Nylon Polymer – Jan. 2018…Celanese Close Announcement

Celanese Close Announcement