Price Increase for Polyethylene is Slipping Away in March.
Domestic Linear Low Density Polyethylene (LLDPE) hexene contact pricing remained unchanged for the month of February. Flat pricing was a highly contested result for the month as producers were pushing for a $0.03 to $0.05 increase, pointing to modestly improved demand and constrained production in the first two months of the year. However, ample inventory across the supply chain remained the dominant factor giving buyers the ability to push back on proposed price increases for the month. Understand, producers are not giving up on their plans for an increase. Instead of canceling proposed February increases, they have moved their increases to March, and those increases are now between $0.05 and $0.06. On paper, producers’ insist the increase is needed because of higher demand domestically, and specifically high demand in exports to Asia and Latin America. Behind the scenes we know operating margins at these producers are at a ten year low. Like any business in the past two years, re...