Sarah Schneider
Associate editor, petrochemicals 
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August 13, 2020 07:30 UTC 
(0)
The US recycled PET market has begun to open up again, following significant disruptions at the height of the coronavirus pandemic that led to nine out of ten bottle bill states forgoing their recycling commitments. At its height, recyclers in California were reporting as much as a 70% drop in Grade A post-consumer PET bottle bale supply and many material recovery facilities (MRFs) across the west coast and mid-west region were either shutting shop or reducing production significantly. |
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Sarah Schneider
Associate editor, petrochemicals
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April 1, 2020 09:20 UTC
(1)
The coronavirus pandemic has created a wave of complications for the recycled plastics industry and hampered short-term supply of plastic waste, with several US areas suspending recycling programs, and concerns about transmission creating problems for waste processors. Ten states in the US currently have “bottle bills”, or mandatory container buyback programs. Now, eight of these ten states – Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon, New York, and Vermont – have temporarily halted enforcements that require retailers to participate in these container redemption programs. This means that residents in these states are no longer able to redeem their used beverage bottles for deposit value. |
Yi-Jeng Huang
Senior Market Development Specialist - Asia
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March 31, 2020 13:27 UTC
(2)
The expected economic recession in the Asia-Pacific region triggered by the coronavirus pandemic will reverberate across the petrochemical supply chain as global demand grinds to a halt, even as China slowly goes back to work. “An enormous first-quarter shock in China, shutdowns across the US and Europe [due to] local [coronavirus] transmission, guarantees a recession across the Asia-Pacific,” said Shaun Roache, Asia-Pacific chief economist for S&P Global Ratings on March 30. “We now expect the hit to output for Asia-Pacific to be as large as the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-1998,” he added. ABS, Asia-Pacific, China, coronavirus, LLDPE, PE, PET, plastics, polyester, polyethylene, polystyrene, PTA
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Ben Brooks
Associate editor, petrochemical alert
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January 22, 2020 09:43 UTC
(1)
The global recycled plastics market will continue to grapple with unfavorable economics in 2020. In the long term, demand for recycled plastics is expected to grow significantly, along with recycling rates for core materials PET, PE and PP. |
Claudia Carpenter
Editor, Gulf commodities news
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December 24, 2019 06:15 UTC
(0)
Sabic executive vice president of petrochemicals, Abdulrahman Al-Fageeh, talked with Claudia Carpenter about the outlook for the industry and Saudi Aramco’s pending takeover of 70% of the company for $69.1 billion. All eyes are on Aramco’s acquisition of Sabic, now that the state-owned oil giant has successfully issued new shares in the world’s biggest initial public offering in December. Aramco has said it expects the Sabic acquisition to close in the first half 2020, turning it into a company with the world’s largest net production capacity of ethylene and among the top four companies in net production capacity of polyethylene, monoethylene glycol and polypropylene. |
Kristen Hays
Global market lead, polymers
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October 16, 2019 09:29 UTC
(1)
Virgin plastic production is thriving in the US, fueled by the North American shale boom. But the reversal of fortune for the US chemical industry has highlighted a bigger challenge amid widespread concern about plastic waste and sustainability. The growth of shale activity across the US unearthed ethane feedstock so cheap that a region that had been facing naphtha-fed plant shutdowns and petrochemical imports saw the cost advantage of home-fracked gas shaping its future as a global petrochemical supplier. |
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Luke Milner and Ben Brooks
Editors, EMEA petrochemicals
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October 9, 2019 15:24 UTC
(3)
Recognition of plastic waste as a global problem has spurred legislation and industry initiatives in the last two years, and driven growth in demand for recycled plastics. When it comes to developing recycling as a sustainable business, Europe leads the way, and in particular the market for polyethylene terephthalate (PET), best known as the material of choice for plastic drinks bottles. But the evolution of PET and recycled PET (R-PET) markets in 2019 highlighted underlying concerns around profitability and cost, as price trends shifted with changing demand patterns. |
Charlie Uribe
Senior specialist, petrochemicals pricing
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August 23, 2019 10:36 UTC
(0)
Colombia’s consumption of single-use plastic bags at major stores more than halved in the past 18 months and the government is mulling greater deterrents to their use, as the outlook for applications of plastics and petrochemicals grows gloomier in the South American country. A program promoted by Colombia’s Ministry of Environmental Affairs’ to reduce the use of plastic bags in large stores and supermarkets resulted in a 54% decrease in the consumption of single-use plastic bags over the past 18 months, the ministry said in mid-August. The decrease in consumption of fossil fuel-based single-use plastic bags is calculated based on self-reporting required of large stores and supermarkets under current regulations. |
Kristen Hays and Yi-Jeng Huang
US and Asia petrochemicals
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March 19, 2019 09:49 UTC
(6)
Trade in polyethylene resin and finished products slowed in the fourth quarter of 2018, becoming a casualty of the US-China trade war. Last year, the Trump Administration launched a full-scale trade war with China, imposing three rounds of tariffs worth a cumulative $250 billion on Chinese products. › Continue Reading |
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S&P Global Platts Staff
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February 27, 2019 12:37 UTC
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US-China trade tensions were in the spotlight last year across commodity markets, and the petrochemicals sector was by no means untouched. Antidumping duties introduced by China on the imports of some origins of styrene – used to make packaging and other plastic and synthetic rubber products – altered trade flows significantly. One result has been an increase in trading activity within Europe. › Continue Reading |
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