Plastics

The month of January finds markets for some secondary plastics slowing in light of reduced buying from Chinese interests and a glut of material.

A reprocessor based in the Midwest says that while business is not bad, markets are generally slower this time of year. "You have the Chinese New Year coming," he says. "The exporters, if they are buying, are looking for deals."

He also cites a glut of material on the market within some sectors, such as PVC and styrenics, for the slowdown, adding that one secondary styrene producer dumped nearly 4 million tons of material on the market at the end of the year. "I think a lot of that will be gobbled up in the first quarter," at which point, he says, he anticipates that the market will strengthen.

A Gulf Coast area reprocessor also finds the year off to a slow start, but adds that it is somewhat slower than it typically is this time of year. "The buyers haven’t really gone out there with strength to buy volume," he says. However, he’s optimistic. "I expect it to pick up pretty soon. Orders are starting to come in."

Some plastics have already seen a mild improvement. While polyethylene took a dip in the last quarter of 2006, the Midwest reprocessor says orders have been coming in at higher rates in January.

HDPE has also regained some strength after a slide in the last quarter of 2006. "HDPE dipped so quickly, so fast, I was concerned whether it was going to bounce back," the Midwest reprocessor says. Prices for the HDPE declined nearly 33 percent in one quarter, he says. Although HDPE has seen some gains recently, it’s still nearly 20 percent off its earlier high in the low 40s, he says.

The reprocessor based in the Gulf Coast also says that he has seen HDPE make some pricing gains recently, but adds, "You have to have the volume to command the best numbers."

While LDPE followed HDPE in softening, according to the Midwestern reprocessor, it didn’t come down as drastically.

Polycarbonate pricing, however, continues to trend downward. "I would say that it has gone down at least 15 percent in the last four months," according to the reprocessor based in the Midwest.

PET Recycling Rate Inches Upward

Recent figures from the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR), Sonoma, Calif., and the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR), Washington, show that the PET recycling rate reached 23.1 percent in 2005, for a total of 1.17 billion pounds of post-consumer containers.

The 2005 figure is an improvement from 2004’s recycling rate of 21.6 percent and reflects the highest PET container collection volume to date.

The volume of PET containers available for recycling within the U.S. in 2005 increased by 9.4 percent to 5.075 million pounds relative to 2004, according to the report.

"We are very pleased to report another increase in the PET recycling rate and in the volume of containers collected in 2005," Gerri Walsh, NAPCOR’s chair and director of packaging industry affairs for Ball Corp., says. "Using recycled PET supports a more energy-efficient and sustainable manufacturing chain and reduces greenhouse gas emissions." She adds, "While we are pleased to report a higher recycling rate, there is increased demand for recycled PET, and we will continue our efforts to promote and encourage more recycling of PET containers to support the growing number of manufacturing applications that use recycled PET feedstock."

More than 860 million pounds of recycled PET were used in 2005 in U.S. manufacturing applications, which included fiber for carpet and apparel, strapping, sheet, film, food and non-food containers.

Information in the report was obtained through surveys conducted by R.W. Beck and Moore Recycling Associates and data generated by NAPCOR and the PET Resin Association (PETRA).

The report, titled "2005 Report on Post Consumer PET Container Recycling Activity," is available on the NAPCOR and APR Web sites at www.napcor.com and www.plasticsreyclcing.org, respectively.

(Additional news about plastics recycling markets is available online at www.RecyclingToday.com.)