Commodity resin markets in North America ended 2024 with two price drops and three materials with flat pricing for December.
North American prices for polypropylene resin were down an average of 2.5 cents per pound for the month. That marked the fourth consecutive monthly price drop for the material, following a 3.5-cent decline in November and a combined drop of 10 cents in September/October. In December, as in the previous three months, the PP price decline followed a similar directional move for polymer-grade propylene feedstock.
Combined with previous increases and decreases, regional PP prices finished 2024 with a net price drop of 9 cents per pound. In a late November market report, PP supplier Blue Clover of New York said that the market "has seen a big pullback in PP operating rates the past couple of months."
"This lever was pulled to decrease the PP days of supply inventory number, which was too high," the report said. It added that PP producers and distributors lowered pricing to sell excess inventories heading into the end of the year and that these two moves "are close to successfully rebalancing" excess PP supply.