In my previous post I told you about a resin increase of 3 to 6 cents per pound scheduled for June 1st. Now that June has come and gone, it’s safe to say that increase never took hold.<\/p>\n
Increases for July 1st and August 1st were then put on the table. As we move to the end of July the picture is still not completely clear, but it does look like a July increase will settle in. The odds of this were strengthened by some recent events in the petrochem industry. Plastics News has reported major polyethylene suppliers “have declared force majeur production limits on that material after incidents at their Texas plants \u2014 including a July 7 fire that injured two workers at a Chevron Phillips ethylene\/propylene unit in Port Arthur.”<\/p>\n
Plastics News also added: “No timetable has been set for restart of the area affected by the incident,” and that the situations “could tighten supply in a North American PE market where demand has been lackluster so far in 2014.”<\/p>\n
As time goes on, I will know more about the situation and update you accordingly.<\/p>\n