High impact PS is now more expensive than bottle-grade PET

Rising raw material costs and continuing material shortages have propelled polymer prices further upwards this month.

Producers found very limited customer resistance to the price hikes and increasingly adopted a ‘take it or leave it’ attitude. A number of suppliers even had to close their order book for most of the month because stocks were so low.

Once again, polystyrene registered the biggest gains with prices up by another Ђ200/tonne last month – more than 15%. High impact grades are now more expensive than bottle-grade PET.

L/LDPE supply was very short and prices have climbed a further Ђ100/tonne, or 11%. HDPE prices were up by a similar percentage, on slightly better availability. Polypropylene, PVC and PET were all Ђ50/tonne higher.

With feedstock costs continuing to rise and material availability likely to remain tight for some time to come, there seems to be no prospect of an early respite to higher prices.

Producers have already announced further planned price increases this month claiming that profitability is still far from satisfactory despite the recent surge in polymer prices.