For North American resins, 2019 came to a close with price changes for a range of materials, with some decreases driven by reduced demand.
North American prices for polypropylene fell an average of 2.5 cents per pound in December, while drops also hit PET bottle resin, engineering resins polycarbonate and nylon 6/6.
The PP price drop hit after prices had slid down by a combined 5 cents in October and November.
North American PP sales were up less than 2 percent in 2019. Factoring out exports left domestic demand slightly negative for the year. On the PP capacity front, Braskem is adding a little more than 1 billion pounds of annual production in La Porte, Texas, in the second quarter of 2020.
Regional PET bottle resin prices fell 1 cent per pound in December, mostly because of low seasonal demand. Prices had also dropped 1 cent in November.
Regional prices for nylon 6/6 were down an average of 10 cents per pound in the final two months of 2019, sources said, with PC resin prices down an average of 5 cents in that same period. Lower demand from automotive and other markets played a role in the price drop.
Nylon 6/6 had been in tight supply for more than a year, but supplies had improved in the second half of 2019, allowing more material to be available, sources added.