Resin Report: Price Erosion Continues in Spot Resin Market

The spot resin market was somewhat quiet in the holiday-shortened week heading into Christmas, and overall spot prime pricing was flat to as much as $0.05/lb lower, reports the PlasticsExchange in its Market Update. Just one week earlier, very active trading was prompted by several waves of railcar offers canvasing most commodity polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) grades. The material was aggressively priced at steeply discounted levels and made available to the Houston export market as well as for domestic delivery. The likes of these well-discounted holiday-type specials had not been seen for several years. Mid-month buyers mostly stayed on the sidelines watching prices erode with pleasure. While some did pick away with orders, the offerings seemed to accumulate as December wore on. Most low-mid melt homo- and co-polymer PP grades were amply available and priced to move. The heaviest PE offerings were for high-density (HD) PE Blow Mold and Injection; low-density (LD) PE Film grades were also well represented, and some LDPE Injection high flow, which had been scarce, also began to appear. Linear-low-density (LLD) PE Film grades were only lightly available and were snatched up quickly by both processors and traders