Polymer prices - Weak demand, slight price erosion
Prices are stable, although minor price erosion is experienced for some products, but no turnaround or trend-like price decrease is experienced for any polymer product family. The potentially unfolding tariff war did not cause panic either. Based on current feedstock price levels, a small olefin monomer price drop of €10-15, possibly a roll-over, is expected in August. A similar price decrease can be expected for styrene monomer.
Manufacturers' expectations are similar, with prices unchanged or falling in August. Thus, there is little pressure to make purchases in July, especially because the converters' buyers also went on vacation. This year's holiday season is longer than usual, starting in mid-June and will certainly last until mid-August. Just as maintenance has become longer at plastic converters.
Due to maintenance by Central European polymer manufacturers, some grades are hardly available or unavailable on the market, but this does not drive prices up either.
On the polymer supply side, there are more and more new entrants, primarily players from outside Europe, trying to enter the European commodity polymer market with competitive production costs. Meanwhile, European polymer manufacturers are closing their plants one after another. Cheap overseas import prices are constantly putting pressure on European-made polymers and significantly expanding price ranges. However, in order to keep the trade doors open, the European Commission has suspended anti-dumping investigations into ABS from Taiwan and South Korea, for example. For now, there seems to be no comprehensive solution to restore the competitiveness of the European chemical and plastics industries.
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myCEPPI
myCEPPI provides a weekly price report for commodity plastics.
