Engineering Thermoplastics July 2017: Declining demand removes pressure from possible price hikes / Rollovers dominate the picture / Exception is rising PMMA notations / Summer lull will hit home in August

摘要

In July, the substantial seasonal decline in demand took a great deal of the load off from the long-prevailing upward price pressure with engineering thermoplastics in Europe, The majority of them rolled over. One notable exception was PMMA, where the still extreme bottlenecks in monomer production have now resulted in significant increases. Notations for the commodity-related ABS and PP compound materials declined, following closely on the heels of their respective feedstocks. With ABS, the hefty fall in the price of butadiene made itself particularly felt. Producers attempted to adjust supply to the summer demand, yet availability still tended to improve in many segments. One reason for this was that, apart from southern Europe, school holidays started in July, and in contrast to previous years, car production in particular shifted quickly and extensively into holiday mode. It seems then that the summer lull this year will be more pronounced.