Situation with PC transparent seems to be easing due to fall in benzene price / PA remains problematic / Still a case of “volume before price” for POM

The increase of EUR 209/t in the benzene contract, plus the higher energy costs, led to a significant rise in the price of PC transparent. European production plants have stepped up their output, so availability has improved significantly. The delivery time for standard materials has thus dropped from 20 weeks to somewhere between 8 and 12 weeks. The quantity of imports has also increased. For PC speciality products, however, supply is still very tight. There are unlikely to be any major supply problems for the standard material again in February; delivery of the contracted volumes has already been promised. The situation with the speciality materials is very different, because converters here will have to contend with continuing allocation arrangements.

There is an extreme shortage of ABS for the production of PC/ABS blends, and this represents the bottleneck for the whole product line. Many converters’ stocks are already so empty that they have no alternative but to buy in at the currently high prices, and this trend is likely to intensify.

Polyamide remains problematic. The extreme shortage of PA 6.6 has allowed producers to factor in their higher energy and logistics costs without converters being able to put up much resistance. There are at least signs of the tension easing slightly in February as stocks are now being filled and production should be able to maintain its usual output.

The situation with POM is different. There are constant battles over the small amount of material that is available. It is definitely a case of “volume before price”. For February, further increases are to be expected because of the material shortage, and even the improving import quota will not change very much here.

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