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PolyProPylene PrICe trenDS Homopolymer dec Copolymer Jan dec Jan ? ? 11.5¢/lb 11.5¢/lb was a furry of spot buying of PP. Although monomer production issues were largely resolved in the frst week of January, several more cracker and refnery outages are planned from now into the early second quarter. Thus, there is the potential for a tight propylene monomer scenario, which could support higher resin prices, depending on demand. Moreover, inventories throughout the supply chain were light at the end of December, and Greenberg noted then that this could lead to very tight conditions during the frst quarter. "We have been advocating procurement of additional resin for the past month and maintain that view," he stated in the Dec. 21 market update of The Plastics Exchange. Domestic PP demand in January was "average," said RTi's Scott Newell, director of client services for PP. Industry inventories across the board can best be described as balanced to tight. Newell says many processors' inventories are depleted, which means they will have to buy at the higher prices. Polystyrene prices were poised to move up as early as the end of last month, as PS suppliers sought increases of 3¢/lb, effective Jan. 1. The key driver was a record escalation of benzene prices, with January contracts settling at $5.16/gal, up from $4.93/gal in November/December, which was then considered the all-time-high. Putting further upward pressure on PS PolyStyrene PrICe trenDS dec Molding 50 february 2013 Plastics technology Jan HIPS dec Jan ? 3¢/lb PVC PRICES UP PVC prices were on the way up last month, as suppliers aimed to implement 3¢/lb price increases. The key factor supporting an increase during this seasonally slow market is rising ethylene monomer costs. Though both December and January ethylene contracts had yet to be settled at press time, spot prices were steadily hovering at around 60¢/lb. PVC suppliers also say planned PVC outages in the last two months of 2012 curtailed supply, but inventory levels are PvC PrICe trenDS PS PRICES FOLLOW BENZENE GPPS prices are rising ethylene cost due to planned and unplanned cracker outages. Butadiene is the only non-factor, as January contract prices settled fat again. Will PS prices move up further? Although the 3¢/lb hike has a very good chance of being fully implemented, there may be some respite this month. By the second week in January, spot benzene prices were starting to drop, so there was some optimism that February benzene contracts would settle lower. There are a couple of planned styrene monomer plant outages this quarter but monomer and PS demand has not been great. Says Mark Kallman, RTi's director of client services for engineering resins, PS, and PVC, "Overall demand will help defne how much further up, if at all, prices may go." ? 3¢/lb Pipe dec General Purpose Jan dec Jan ? 3¢/lb ? 3¢/lb said to have remained balanced. According to Kallman, you are likely to see at least 2¢/lb of the January increase, and he says a bit more upward movement is possible this month and then fattening out in March. Once the second quarter gets under way, Kallman anticipates higher pricing pressure coming from demand, in line with projections for healthy growth in the domestic construction market. By Lilli Manolis Sherman, Senior Editor