The spot Polyethylene market slowed dramatically this past week, taking a heavy breather from the very busy pace seen for most of the past couple of months. Spot demand diminished greatly as buyers took a wait and see approach with regard to new orders. The 25% Chinese tariffs on HDPE and LLDPE that are scheduled to implement on August 23rd have really begun to disrupt the market, particularly in Houston, the major resin export hub. Traders that ... [More]

Spot PP trading was slightly above average this past week. Demand was steady and prices edged up about a penny for both HoPP and CoPP. However, the recent minor retreat in upstream monomer costs could limit the August contract increase to perhaps $.02/lb or less, rather than $.03/lb. Spot PP availability increased a tad for the typical commodity grades, while some of the specialties remain scarce. While there are good volumes of PP material agai... [More]