Polymers
Overview
Global polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) supply and demand dynamics are in transition. Supply is increasing much faster than demand and international trade is shifting due to political and economic events. About 40% of the US polyethylene production is exported, mainly to Asian markets, whereas only about 10% of the polypropylene production is exported, mainly to LATAM markets.
Ethylene prices in Asia and Europe are tied to naphtha whereas ethylene prices in the US are impacted by natural gas and ethane supply. Asia is also self-sufficient on PP whereas they must import 25% of their PE demand.
The impacts of other ethylene and propylene derivatives such as PVC or propylene oxide also require assessment.
Our polymer experts will help you determine what trends to track and how to stay competitive in today’s ever-changing global markets.
Latest polymers news
Browse the latest market moving news on the global polymers industry.
Anti-dumping investigation may support EU rPET
Anti-dumping investigation may support EU rPET
London, 22 May (Argus) — European PET market participants hope that the EU's anti-dumping investigation, if successful, could help preserve the profitability of the European PET industry and investments in recyclers needed to reach legislative targets, which are already in place. The European Commission has started an investigation covering virgin and recycled PET from Vietnam. The anti-dumping complaint, filed by industry association PET Europe, includes concerns that dumping of PET imports into the EU harms the European recycling industry. The complaint summary states that "with imports of vPET depressing the price of rPET, production of rPET becomes economically unviable, leading recyclers to bankruptcy." The investigation covers imports of PET from Vietnam with an intrinsic viscosity of 78 ml/g or higher, classified under HS code 390761 that arrived in the EU in 2024. The complaint from European market participants states that import dumping "directly impacts the EU's recycling and sustainability targets, the success of which depends on a successful recycling loop. Innovation and know-how of European rPET producers are seriously impaired by dumped imports." The application for the investigation says imports of low cost vPET encourages downstream users to increase consumption of vPET rather than using more rPET to save on costs, particularly important in the current challenging economic environment, when cost saving is at the forefront of commercial decisions. The premium for recycled material over virgin PET in Europe is at its highest since the end of 2022. Recyclers have reported demand for recycled material this year has been impacted by low virgin prices and the focus on sustainability has become less of a priority as companies have wider economic concerns. By Chloe Kinner Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
PETCORE Europe Thermoforms: Collection is key
PETCORE Europe Thermoforms: Collection is key
London, 16 May (Argus) — Ahead of the Petcore Europe Thermoforms Conference in Dijon, France on 27-28 May, the technical manager of Petcore Europe's thermoforming working group, Jose-Antonio Alarcon, spoke to Argus about progress in the European tray-to-tray recycling market. Since we attended the annual event last year in Granada, Spain what has changed for the market? We don't see big changes. Collection is mostly the same, but there have been some developments on recycling projects. The appetite for recycling of tray-to-tray is growing. We have seen more players coming to operate in the tray-to-tray market over the last year, and more capacity is expected to start during this year. Petcore are aiming to make an study of the state of play for the thermoform industry in Europe to have a clear view on the real market size and the final application usage. The distribution between the food contact and non-food contacts, and also between mono and multi-layer, are essential for us and will be discussed in France. Following on from the success of last year's conference, what topics and discussions are you hoping will come up at this year's event? We want to keep energising the market, and building on the momentum. We have five pillars in the thermoforming working group that will be represented at the conference supporting the initiatives in the market. The first one is collection and sorting. If the material is not collected, it is not sorted, it is not recycled, period. We will be visiting a state-of-the-art sorting centre where they separate bottles and trays into mono- and multi-layer streams. The main challenge is how can these best practices be expanded to the rest of Europe. The second is recycling technologies. This is important, because you cannot use the same technologies for recycling bottle and trays because the physical properties of trays are not the same as bottles. Trays are often thinner and more brittle, they generate more dust and need to be treated more gently. Third is food contact, because we need to get the food contact trays back and into the closed loop. The majority of tray packaging placed on the market is in food contact applications, but there is not currently much progress on separate tray collection. There is work to be done in that direction. Then we have design for recycling and standardisation. If you don't design properly for recycling, then it will be very difficult for the market to scale up. And lastly is communication. Consumers need to know that trays can be recycled just like bottles, and we need people engaged. We also have presentations from the European Commission and legislative specialists as this is an important factor in the outlook for the market. Last year there was no specific legislation dedicated to thermoforms. Now we have the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) that passed into legislation and has mandated recycle content targets. So is this a positive? There are some positives and negatives. Yes, in the PPWR there is mandated recycled content targets for contact sensitive and non-contact sensitive packaging that will directly impact the tray market. Of course, this should move more people toward the use of tray flake and towards separate collection for tray. One of the impacts of legislation is that a lot of countries are moving to deposit return scheme (DRS) collection on bottles, which is deducting a lot of bottle from the regular yellow bin collection. So there will be a higher proportion of tray coming from this collection which could be a good opportunity for the circularity of trays if this waste is managed properly. And the recycled content targets should give a demand boost to the tray-to-tray market. We also have recycled content targets into bottles from the Single Use Plastics Directive (SUPD) meaning more and more bottle flakes are going back to bottles so that's a good opportunity for tray flakes. PPWR targets 30pc recycled content for contact sensitive packaging and 35pc for non-contact sensitive packaging by 2030. Will Europe be able to reach these targets in the tray market? It could, and it is possible, but it is ambitious. At this time, we are a long way from that point on tray-to-tray and it is very complicated. If we look to the bottle market, these percentages are achievable. Around 70pc of bottles are collected on average in Europe, but less than 30pc of trays. If we achieve similar collection volumes for trays then around 30pc recycled content should be feasible. But it will be challenging. At the moment bottle flake prices are at a significant premium to the virgin PET, which is impacting demand particularly in thermoforming applications and other cost saving markets like strapping and fibre. What impact could this have for PET tray flakes? People try to minimise their impact on the balance sheet, bottom line so less competitive prices versus virgin for rPET bottle flakes and pellets could spur more interest in tray. And maybe with the additional demand for bottle flake or food grade pellets from legislation and recycled content targets, people are looking for an alternative source so that they're not having to compete with that bottle flake market. But for PETCORE the focus is not on cost, our intention is that every package place on the market is collected, sorted and recycled. Over the last 12 months, we've seen quite a few chemical recycling projects being delayed or deferred. Is the difficult business environment across the whole industry an additional challenge for scaling up tray-to-tray? Of course there are challenges. We need to look at how the bottle recycling market has changed in the past 15 years with collection, technology, volume, quality, capacity etc., and the tray market is much later in the in the evolution, so it will take some time in order to achieve a similar situation as the bottle market. Of course, we expect that the speed of acceleration to reach the point of maturity to be faster for trays because we can take some learnings from previous experiences. Five years ago, trays were considered a contaminant at bottle sorting plants, and what we see today is that trays have the possibility to be a properly recycled stream providing another outlet of waste for sorters and recyclers. We need the material to be collected and it will require investment of course. The current infrastructure may be sufficient if managed properly. To increase the number of streams collected and volumes there may not be the need to invest in new infrastructure but just to boost current infrastructures. Chemical recycling is also part of the picture. There is a place for everyone, and mechanical and chemical are absolutely complementary. At the end of the day, we need to try to recover as much material as possible, then minimise the use of virgin resources so we know streams that can be as effective as possible. Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Shell to buy Freepoint pyrolysis oil in US: Update
Shell to buy Freepoint pyrolysis oil in US: Update
Adds Freepoint comment in second paragraph Houston, 8 May (Argus) — Freepoint Eco-Systems has agreed to provide Shell's polymer plant in Pennsylvania with "a steady supply" of pyrolysis oil produced in Hebron, Ohio, from chemically recycled plastic waste. Under the "landmark agreement", oil will be shipped to Shell's polymer plant in Monaca, Pennsylvania, where it will be used to make plastic, the company said. Shell under the deal is entitled to the Hebron plant's production capacity of 130mn lb/yr, Freepoint said Thursday. Freepoint's Hebron plant is still in its commissioning phase, but the company expects to produce up to its full capacity of pyrolysis oil upon completion later this year. Pyrolysis uses high heat to break down waste plastic into feedstocks that can be used to make virgin-like plastic material. Shell said the agreement reflected its commitment to increasing the circularity of plastics in its portfolio. On 22 April, Freepoint sent its first railcar of pyrolysis oil to Shell's plant in Norco, Louisiana. By Zach Kluver Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
PureCycle rPP volumes to follow customer trials
PureCycle rPP volumes to follow customer trials
Houston, 8 May (Argus) — PureCycle will base its production of recycled polypropylene (rPP) at its Ironton, Ohio, location on demand from customer trials, the company said this week during its first quarter earnings call. The company currently holds 14mn lbs of rPP in inventory, and produced 4mn lbs of rPP during the first quarter of 2025. "As customer trials progress and demand comes on the books, we will raise [production] rates in order to meet the demand," said chief executive Dustin Olson. PureCycle currently has 33 active customer trials for its rPP and 55 pending trials. Its material is being trialed under applications that include automotive, consumer packaging, durable housewares, and furniture. The Ironton facility's nameplate capacity is 107mn lbs, which the company is still far away from producing. However, in April, the plant achieved its best monthly feed rate of 12,500 lbs/hr with on-stream time at 87pc. PureCycle reported the company's first ever revenue of $1.6mn in the first quarter. By Zach Kluver Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
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