Polymer Global Analysis
Resin To Riches: Weekly Plastic Market Insights
- General Thoughts: Spot polymer prices reflect stabilization in early 2026 as crude strength, feedstock dispersion, and production curbs lift price floors, with 1H26 favoring margin defense and selective upside over demand-led recovery.
- Polyethylene (PE): Early-2026 PE prices firm on rising ex-US naphtha costs and operating discipline, with cautious global buying and restocking patterns giving way to a 2026 likely defined more by margin defense than a demand-led recovery.
- Polypropylene (PP): Early-2026 PP prices stabilize globally amid higher crude and propylene prices, with production curbs offsetting weak demand but leaving margins strained as cost pressure, not consumption, shapes 2026 outcomes.
- Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC): Early-2026 PVC prices appear set to find a firmer floor as China’s announced VAT removal lifts global costs, housing stabilizes, and mid-2026 supply tightening offsets tepid global demand and inventory overhangs.
- Other Sector Developments: Rising oil/firmer naphtha, tighter olefin markets, resilient freight rates, and regional gas divergence steepen polymer cost curves, reinforcing price floors despite weak demand and volatile currency dynamics.
Exhibit 1 – Chart of the Day: Global polymer spot prices stabilize in early 2026, as oil support steepens cost curves.
Source: Bloomberg, C-MACC Analysis, January 2026
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