Polystyrene Market Update, October 22, 2007

Volume: Average Price: Higher The Polystyrene market remains firm, and spot prices continue to move higher, reflecting producers' effort to secure at least a $.02/lb increase for October resin contracts. Should energy and feedstocks continue to move to the upside, producers are already armed with another $.04/lb price increase which has been issued for November contracts. We saw a fairly average flow of spot resin this past week, there were several good hoppercars of near prime GPPS offered in the lower-mid $.70s/lb and a few good HIPS cars made available in the mid-high $.70s/lb. There was pretty good spot demand this week coming from processors that have minimal resin inventories on hand. While the orders could have been filled with full cars still to ship, there was difficulty finding already placed resin for prompt truckload shipment. With fewer players at the top of the production chain, and many resellers disinterested in stocking discretionary pounds of Polystyrene resin, sourcing spot Polystyrene has become challenging. This trend is likely to continue as we see the results of the sector's consolidation take form. (The Plastics Exchange)