Polymer Global Analysis Resin To Riches: Weekly Plastic Market Insights Exhibit 1 – Chart of the Day: US integrated PVC and PE margins rebound in 1Q26 as global cost dispersion widens. Source: Bloomberg, C-MACC Analysis, February 2026

General Thoughts: Regulation is poised to reallocate packaging profit pools toward design-led ecosystems, rewarding early specification control and lifting risk for volume-driven players that delay sustainable capital allocation decisions.

Polyethylene (PE): Global PE spot prices firm on cost curve steepening and trade leverage, yet inventory overhangs and mixed end-demand

General Thoughts: Repeated NMAs highlight how published benchmarks can diverge from transactional reality, reinforcing the value of C-MACC’s polymer market services in aligning pricing strategy, procurement, and margin control.

Polyethylene (PE): PE markets are rangebound at higher cost floors, but absent durable ethylene strength or structural closures, 2026 upside

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 outcomes, and better forecast risk-adjusted returns.

Polyethylene (PE): Global PE spot price strength reflects cost pressure, operational friction, and producer restraint, but more permanent capacity

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 price transmission and earnings dispersion in 2026.

Polyethylene (PE): Cost-led global PE firmness masks fragile demand recovery, with weather risk and feedstock divergence supporting prices

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 tightness will be short-lived.

Polyethylene (PE): Potential weather-driven disruptions from US Winter Storm Fern could push polymer prices higher, helping producers implement price hikes. Absent

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

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 and lift returns.

Polyethylene (PE): Early-2026 PE prices show support, but as restocking fades and cost curve flattening concerns mount, exports offer marginal relief, leaving

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 floors dependent on exits, cost curves, and trade.

Polyethylene (PE): Market firmness reflects more positioning than balance, as China anchors clearing prices, grade-level inventories diverge,