Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Videos
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • K Show
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Processor of the Year
    • Best Places to Work
      • 2023 winners
    • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Rising Stars
    • Diversity
    • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • Pellets and Politics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • K Show Livestream
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • Bioplastics Live
    • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Resin Prices
    • Resin Prices Overview
    • Commodity Thermoplastics
    • High Temperature Thermoplastics
    • Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Thermosets
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
March 12, 2021 10:11 AM

Texas freeze heats up resin prices in February

Frank Esposito
Senior Staff Reporter
Plastics News Staff
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print

    Tight supplies and the Texas ice storm sent North American prices for most commodity resins up in February, including a monumental price increase for polypropylene.

    Beginning Feb. 14, cold weather spread across Texas, including its Gulf Coast, where much U.S. resin production is located. Plants were closed in advance of the cold snap, but some operations were damaged as freezing temperatures caused pipes to expand.

    As of Feb. 25, many commodity resin makers on the coast still were assessing their ability to restart production. Commodity resin markets — especially polyethylene, polypropylene and PVC — already were tight before the cold snap and have been further tightened by the outages.

    PP prices catapulted up by 34 cents per pound in February. That's believed to be a record single-month hike for that material. PP prices already had been up a combined 27 cents in December and January. These major spikes have led some processors to issue price surcharges on PP finished products.

    Most production of resin and related materials was down early Feb. 19, with several producers declaring force majeure or otherwise limiting sales through allocations. The previous day, research firm ICIS of Houston estimated that almost 90 percent of U.S. PP resin production was offline.

    The firm also placed outages for linear low density PE at 54 percent, LDPE at 51 percent, high density PE at 42 percent and PVC at 16 percent. In feedstocks, ICIS estimated 65 percent of U.S. ethylene production was down, as well as almost 50 percent of propylene and 23 percent of vinyl chloride monomer.

    The PP market is facing unprecedented shortages. Supplies already were tight before the Texas ice storm because of limited supplies of propylene.

    "We're hearing that some of these [PP] plants could be up and running by the end of [February], but some of these shortages could last another two months," said Marc Fern, executive vice president with resin distributor M. Holland Co. in Northbrook, Ill.

    Fern added that the lack of available PP resin could lead some processors to close plants or production lines temporarily if they can't get enough material. "Without propylene, [resin makers] can't make resin, and converters can't make their products," he said.

    Prices for all grades of PE resin surged 7 cents per pound in February, following 5-cent hikes in both December and January. Those hikes were caused by strong demand — especially in products sold to grocery stores — and unplanned outages at some production sites.

    PE supplies also are expected to tighten. On a Plastics News webinar Feb. 16, market analyst Mike Burns of Resin Technology Inc. said that "there are a lot of gray areas, but it's not looking positive right now."

    Even before the Texas cold snap, the PE market was being impacted by lower production at a major plant operated in Mexico by Braskem Idesa. That plant now is in the process of restarting.

    Major PE makers are seeking a 7-cent price increase effective March 1. North American PE prices are up a net of 32 cents since January 2020.

    Prices for suspension PVC moved up 3 cents per pound in February after increasing 4 cents per pound in January. Demand is up, as processors that sell products into the building and construction markets look to build inventories.

    North American PVC prices now are up a net of 22.5 cents per pound since January 2020. Construction-related uses, including plastic pipe, account for around 60 percent of annual PVC sales in the U.S. and Canada.

    In solid PS, prices moved up 2 cents per pound after rising 5 cents in January and a total of 8 cents in November and December. The February increase came as a bit of a surprise, since prices for benzene feedstock, which is used to make styrene monomer, were down 5 cents to $2.43 per gallon for the month.

    PS prices since January 2020 now are up a net of 19 cents. Markets for the material were affected in the second half of 2020 by the temporary shutdown of almost 600 million pounds of styrene capacity operated by Westlake Chemical Corp. in Lake Charles, La.

    Prices for PET bottle resin moved up an average of 3 cents per pound in February after increasing the same amount in January. Beverage suppliers are building inventories of the material in advance of higher consumption during warmer summer months.

    Market sources said that although production of PET bottle resin itself wasn't much affected by the cold snap, some plants that make feedstocks needed to make the resin are down.

    PET prices showed a net decline of 1.5 cents per pound for full-year 2020. Bottled water has been the largest beverage market in the U.S. since 2016, when it surpassed carbonated soft drinks, according to the Beverage Marketing Corp.

    In feedstocks, February prices also were affected by the Texas ice storm. West Texas Intermediate oil began February at $52.20 per barrel but had surged to $61.50 by the end of the month for a jump of almost 18 percent.

    Prices for natural gas, used as a feedstock in North American PE and PVC, began February at $2.56 per million British thermal units and reached as high as $3.21 before finishing the month at $2.77, an increase of more than 8 percent.

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    Clean Vision to spend $50M on West Virginia pyrolysis plant
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Most Popular
    1
    Texas Injection Molding expands again
    2
    Germany's Stratec buys medical molder Natech to boost US presence
    3
    Plastics treaty urged to include EPR for flexible packaging ‘to make it work'
    4
    Phillips-Medisize closing Medford, Wis., plant, cutting 83 jobs
    5
    Resin Prices
    SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE NEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Tire Business
    • Urethanes Technology
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • K Show
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • Processor of the Year
        • Best Places to Work
          • 2023 winners
        • Women Breaking the Mold
        • Rising Stars
        • Diversity
        • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
      • Newsletters
      • Videos
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • Pellets and Politics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • K Show Livestream
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
      • Industry Events
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
        • Bioplastics Live
        • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
      • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Resin Prices
      • Resin Prices Overview
      • Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temperature Thermoplastics
      • Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Recycled Plastics
      • Thermosets
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified