Kickstart: Resin prices hit by 'all of the above'

During the dot-com business bubble of the late 1990s, I recall a business news show opened its rehashing of the latest stock market record with "stop me if you've heard this before."

It feels the same way these last couple of years when it comes to rising resin prices and supply shortages, starting with the big demand for grocery store packaging that made it hard to find some polyethylene and PET grades while the booming sales in plastic barriers had acrylic and polycarbonate in short supply. (You'll be able to read more about that in next week's issue of Plastics News.)

The rest of 2020 would bring us shortages related to damage in Louisiana from two hurricanes, while early 2021 brought the shock to the system from Texas' ice storm and power outages. And don't forget the problems with simply getting finished resin from Point A to Point B.

Every time conditions seem to get a little easier, something else pops up.

Currently, the Ukraine invasion has driven up prices for both crude oil and natural gas, impacting production costs for resins. So what's hitting hardest right now?

"It's all of the above," one PET market watcher told PN's Frank Esposito in his latest breaking news story on pricing changes.

Canada's auto industry wants to provide jobs to Ukrainian refugees, pointing to a strong history among automakers, parts suppliers and Eastern European immigrants.

Flavio Volpe, head of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association (APMA), got the ball rolling, Greg Layson from our sister paper Automotive News Canada writes.

"We will match qualified candidates with employers," Volpe said on Twitter. "Refugees who are seeking a new future in [Canada and] would like a career in the auto sector please reach out."

More than 10 million Ukranians have been forced to relocate since Russia invaded the country in February. Canada has approved 56,000 applications for refugees, with more applications in process.

"I say this with all humility," Volpe said, "What more can we do?"

United Kingdom-based high-end retailer Selfridges has a pop-up shop in operation through the end of this month featuring almost every high-tech, 21st century trend: robots, 3D printing, ocean plastics and even NFT (non-fungible token) artworks.

While the shop may have a very basic 20th century name — Supermarket — it aims to be an "earth-conscious shop of the future."

It features, among other things, a 7-foot-tall ABB 3D printing robot producing a variety of personalized designer objects made from marine debris collected by Parley for the Ocean.

"By reusing plastic from the world's oceans to print designer objects, we help to highlight the important contribution of robots in creating the sustainable manufacturing processes central to a circular economy," ABB Robotics President Marc Segura said.