Recent North American price drops for ABS, nylon and polycarbonate resins are featured in this week’s Material Insights video. Regional ABS prices are down a net of 4 cents per pounds since Jan. 1, according to buyers and market watchers contacted by Plastics News. Nylon 6 prices are down 11 cents and nylon 6/6 prices are down 6 cents in that same comparison. PC prices have slumped 8 cents per pound since May. Weak demand and lower feedstock prices played a role in the price drops. A. Schulman’s most recent acquisition also is featured in this week’s video. This time, Schulman has paid $36.5 million for ECM Plastics, a compounder based in Worcester, Mass. ECM has annual sales of about $40 million. It’s the sixth acquisition in less than three years for Fairlawn, Ohio-based Schulman. The video wraps up with news of a joint venture between plastics and chemicals makers Mexichem and Occidental Chemical. The JV will build an ethylene cracker probably in Mexico to supply ethylene to an OxyChem vinyl chloride monomer plant in Texas. That VCM then would be shipped to Mexichem PVC plants in Mexico, where it would be used as a feedstock.
N. American PET bottle resin prices fall 7 cents
May 20, 2013 12:18 pm ET
