Material Insights: April 30, 2012

Price changes for North American high-impact polystyrene and PET bottle resin are featured in this week's Material Insights video. Regional prices for HIPS increased an average of two cents per pound in March. mainly because of higher prices for butadiene feedstock. For PET bottle resin, a 3-cent April price drop negated a 1-cent increase that the market saw in March. The April drop was caused by lower prices for paraxylene and ethykene glycol feedstock. More nylon 12 resin alternatives also are included in this week's video. A nylon 12 shortage is expected because of a late March fatal fire and explosion at a feedstock plant in Germany. Now, Ticona is offering its acetal and polyphenylene sulfide resins and Rhodia, DSM and DuPont are offering various nylon grades as replacements for nylon 12, which is a key resin used in automotive fuel lines. The video wraps up with news of Sabic breaking ground on a 645,000-square-foot technology center in Kangqiao, China, near Shanghai. The $100 million center will employ 400 when completed in 2013. Sabic's Innovative Plastics business also announced upcoming capacity additions for polycarbonate resin, compounds and film.