Daily Chemical Reactions | Sunday Thematic & Weekly Recap

US Polymer Prices Hit Highs, Are Slopes Slickening For A Slide?
October 18, 2020
Commodities Mentioned:
Crude Oil, Naphtha, Natural Gas, Ethylene, Propylene, Polyethylene, Polypropylene, PVC, Chlor-Alkali, Maleic Anhydride, Styrene, Propylene Oxide, Hydrogen, Epoxy Resin, Lithium, PET, Isopropanol, Isoamylene, SBR, Methanol, Butyl Acrylate, Xylenes, Butyl Rubber, MDI, Benzene, TDI, Polystyrene, Polycarbonate, Polyvinyl Alcohol, Bitumen
Companies Mentioned:
LyondellBasell, Formosa, ExxonMobil, CP Chem, Braskem, Westlake, Shintech, OxyChem, Formosa, Olin, Methanex, SCC, Natgasoline, Sinopec, Dow, SABIC, BASF, Celanese, Elkem, Fluor, Kraton, Lummus, Sasol, Nouryon, Shell, SK Innovation, Siemens, SQM, Tatneft, Wacker, Huntsman, Covestro, Angus, Berry Global, Satellite Petro, Gevo, Total, Henkel, Lummus, Aramco, BP, Chevron, Gulf Coast Sequestration, Hyundai, Applied Graphene Materials, Barentz, Energy Renaissance, Givaudan, Gurit, Ikea, Indorama, Kaustik Volgograd, Lonza, LG Chem, TechnipFMC, TPC, Shin-Etsu, Solvay, Wanhua, Arlanxeo, Mitsubishi, Borealis, CarbonLite, Clariant, Colines, DuPont, Evonik, Linde, Milliken, Phillips 66, PQ Group, Sekisui, Trinseo

C-MACC Sunday Recap

 

US Polymer Prices Hit Highs, Are Slopes Slickening For A Slide?

  • A strong consumer recovery, everywhere but China, has eclipsed industrial production recoveries since COVID lows. US retail spending in September is above the pre-COVID trend, suggesting that savings are being tapped, given high unemployment.  This cannot last; stimulus is needed.  
  • We continue to note higher polymer prices in the US, in part driven by robust demand in select areas but also a consequence of storm driven production outages. US prices reflect a 5 year high versus Asia – unstable for an export focused country
  • We maintain our preference for PVC exposure – price strength in this area has been driven by strong global housing and construction spending, and there are few new global capacity expansions on the horizon – though we see US operating rates normalizing, a coordinated stimulus could see a World increasingly short of PVC

Last week we discussed 30 Chemical and related products and 73 Companies. It is always great to applaud the success of our clients and note the announcement from GCS in the ESG/Climate Change Headlines Section

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