Polyethylene Resin and Film Pricing News

The Polyethylene market has really changed these past several weeks, it has gone from sloppy, grossly over supplied and in virtual freefall, to disciplined, tightly supplied and ever-firming price-wise. The cracker turnaround season has played its fair share in this changing environment as restricted production has sent Ethylene costs quickly soaring more than a dime. For the first time in ages, lower resin prices and higher monomer costs actually created a serious margin squeeze on the low end of the Polyethylene market.

As such, HDPE prices have recently seen the greatest recovery as month-ago export prices would simply be unprofitable today.

The spot PE market continued to tick higher, closing the gap held to premium priced contracts. All commodity PE resins added at least a cent, with $.015/lb gains seen for HDPE film and blow molding grades. The market’s upward momentum has gained traction, spurred along by rapidly rising energy and feedstock costs. Polyethylene producers have further flexed their price increase muscle, expressing firm intent to raise contracts by $.05/lb in March. An additional $.04/lb increase has begun to be floated for April, which should provide processors with added incentive to procure.

While the PE market has definitely bottomed and the ensuing upswing has begun, the March $.05/lb increase is far from a forgone conclusion. Processors are just receiving their late-shipping Feb railcars, which capped off a 2 month $.05/lb decrease and they are not so quick to give back their hard fraught savings.

Late month purchasing was robust, as producers were doling out material at deep discounts. Processors claim to be in a healthy inventory position and will resist the snap-back increase, while acknowledging that if the market stays its current course, they will likely pay more for their April contract purchases.

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