General Thoughts: Value premia earned through differentiation at cycle troughs can signal future share gains, enabling advantaged producers to run hard, more consistently price on

General Thoughts: Relatively calm US polymer prices in 2025 masked upstream cost volatility, shifting risk into margins and working capital, setting conditions for sharper, producer-led

General Thoughts: Potential weather-driven disruptions from US Winter Storm Fern could push polymer prices higher, helping producers implement price hikes. Absent global rationalization, regional episodic

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

General Thoughts: Early-2026 polymer spot price stabilization masks weak production margins, accelerating restructuring and capital discipline in 1Q26 as producers right-size operations to restore profitability

General Thoughts: Global polymer markets continue to clear tactically, not cyclically, in late 2025 as oversupply, logistics normalization, and discipline overwhelm demand signals, leaving price

General Thoughts: Weak manufacturing, collapsing freight, and flattening cost curves are exerting relentless oversupply pressure on global polymers, revealing fragile price floors held in part

General Thoughts: Underappreciated polymer market dynamics center on accelerating cost-curve compression, rising China-driven trade distortions, and tighter Western markets, collectively redesigning early 2026 competitive outcomes.