Modern Plastics Worldwide - July/August 2009 - dae uptlax

Although demand remains tepid in North America
and Europe, processors have by-and-large
depleted their stocks, and plastics suppliers have
applied the brakes to their supply chain, creating
a situation where even relatively low demand is
met with a challenging supply side.
According to spot-trading platform The Plastics
Exchange (TPE) and reporting partner, The
PetroChem Wire, suppliers were able to increase
polyethylene and polypropylene prices in June,
with many pushing for additional increases in
July and August. These actions come in a market
where volumes are still down substantially
from year-ago levels, feedstocks are on the rise,
and export interest from Asia is lifting. At press
time, linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE)
film butene was trading at a penny premium,
while HDPE injection was about a half-cent
below blowmold grades.
In Asia, reported plastics pricing service
Polymerupdate.com, growing demand met tight
supplies and high feedstock costs, leading to
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Pricing Summary: Commodity resins rise
Brought to you by The Plastics Exchange and Polymerupdate.com
mpw.plasticstoday.com
price hikes in polyethylene (low- and highdensity),
polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, and
polystyrene. Limited spot availability and rising
naphtha and ethylene helped feed the pricing
strength. An LDPE trader contacted by Polymerupdate
said that deep-sea parcels originating
from the U.S. have sold into China below $1200/
tonne CFR and helped keep Asian LDPE sellers
from pushing through greater increases. In India,
provisional anti-dumping duties on PP imports
from select producers in Singapore, Oman, and
Saudi Arabia left many PP importers “surprised
and shocked,” reported Polymerupdate.
In Europe, reported Polymerupdate, prices
moved sharply upwards for PP, PE and PS, with
PVC prices expected to rise substantially at press
time. Suppliers have slowed output at many
facilities, leaving supply tight.
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Here are some of the stories you might have missed
at mpw.plasticstoday.com:
• Switch from PS and PP to PLA gets molder in the door
• Gerresheimer sells automotive molding unit to FBH Group
• Shorter hours reported at packaging processors
• Vegetable-based plasticizer garners prize, and continued investment
• Thermoformer PWP plans to build second PET recycling center
These and many more, daily, at plasticstoday.com.
Start your day right; check back often.
FIRST LOOK
Names in the news
After more than three
decades at Battenfeld,
global leader in manufacturer
of pipe and
profile extrusion lines,
Wolfgang Studener has
left the company, with
the hand at the wheel
Jürgen Arnold
now controlled by Jürgen
Arnold, who joins the firm after
serving as CEO at pump manufacturer
Sterling SIHI for six years. He also
spent some 20 years of his career in the
plastics industry at Bayer and then GE
Plastics (now Sabic).
Wolfgang Pöschl, a member of the
executive board at compound extruder
machinery manufacturer Coperion, has left
the company, with his duties to be split
between two remaining board members.
Stephen Herrmann joined extruder manufacturer
Alpha Marathon as SW U.S. sales
manager. Based in Houston, TX, he will
sell directly to film processors.
[ On the record ]
“The biggest issue underlying the
plastics industry and most all manufacturing
is that most members of
Congress have no clue what goes on
inside a factory...Manufacturers are
fed up with the presumptiveness of
535 people 875 miles away from here
thinking they have all the answers.”
Don Manzullo (R), one of four Illinois
congressmen who visited NPE2009.
“The average age in tool and die
shops [in the U.S.] today is 55, so
nationwide we expect by 2020 the
shortage of skilled workers to be
about 13 million.” Jerry Knight, executive
director, Precision Manufacturing
Institute, Meadville, PA.
“The industry makes you get big, or
you stay real, real little.” Wayne Rodrigue,
CEO of Exousia Advanced Materials,
which is ramping up scale as it commercializes
a new line of TPOs and TPVs.
MODERN PLASTICS WORLDWIDE • JULY/AUGUST 2009 11