Push Comes To Shove – Downstream Price Hikes Hold Focus As Upstream Supply Chain Constraints Linger

Daily Chemical Reaction

Push Comes To Shove – Downstream Price Hikes Hold Focus As Upstream Supply Chain Constraints Linger

Key Points:

• Raw material cost inflation is the hot topic today following a few sector 2Q reports, such as the results from coatings producer PPG. This setting should not surprise those following our work, and we flag several early 2H21 trends.
• This report highlights examples of recent US commodity chemical spot market strength and notes that many derivative profit spreads, such as HDPE-to-ethylene, remain well above 2019 levels and their five-year average.
• We highlight pertinent chemical sector corporate items (e.g., PPG, Asian Paints, Gangfeng Lithium, Motiva, Trinseo, & other sector producer news).
• We find ESG items worth notice, ranging from IEA research on global government clean energy spending to a Chevron carbon capture update.
• Global container freight rates fell on avg. WoW, but remain near record levels. End product price inflation is a significant 2H21 issue for retailers.

See PDF below for all charts, tables and diagrams