Recycled Polymers - Europe December 2017

Month: December 2017
	€/ton	€/ton
Recycled Grades	Min	Max
R-PET Flakes Clear/Blue	830	1020
R- HDPE Black Corrugated Pipes (PCR**)	700	850
R- HDPE Black Pipes (PIR**)	960	1000
R- LDPE Black Film (PCR*)	600	700
R- LDPE Film (PIR**)	1000	1050
R- homo-PP black injection(PIR**)	820	900
R- homo-PP injection (PIR**)	930	960
R- PPBC injection (PIR**)	840	1040

* (post-consumer recycle)
** (post-industrial recycle)


The R-PET market continued to follow a bullish trend in December, with strong increases of up to €60/ton being reported with respect to November. Clear grade posted the strongest increase. The R-PET range for clear grade was reported at €900-1020/ton FD. Prices for R-PET light blue grade saw comparatively limited increases to be reported at €830-900/ton with the same terms. Despite the complaints for high prices on the buyers’ side, demand was reported to be good. Meanwhile, supply was still tight, which supported strong hike requests on the sellers’ side. However, a recycler, who sells on the high end of the range, commented that he is concerned due to the narrowing gap between clear grade and prime PET prices. A food packager commented, “We paid increases of around €30/ton and we were able to find lower prices for West European origins compared to the offers received by Italian suppliers. R-PET demand might taper off owing to these increases in the medium-long term as prices are no longer competitive with respect to the prime PET prices. Expectations for January remain firmer.

The R-HDPE market saw a mostly stable trend in December, with the bulk of the December business closed in the first part of the month due to the limited working days. A recycler reported that they didn’t concede to further decreases this month while demand was deemed as good considering the year-end. According to the seller, prices may start to increase during January -February period on the back of the awaited increases for prime PE prices. Buyers confirmed to have purchased limited cargoes in December, paying rollovers from November. Both sellers and buyers voiced bullish expectations for January after several months of a stable to softer trend. However, buyers think that prices may remain stable next month due to the balanced market conditions between supply and demand.,

The R-LDPE market followed a stable trend in November. Demand was reported to be calm as buyers mostly limited their purchases considering the limited number of working days ahead of the Christmas festivities. They will halt their production for at least two weeks and they will be back to the market starting from January 8. Suppliers and buyers reported stable prices while they anticipate a possible reversal of the trend for the beginning of the year. A buyer commented, “We heard about a possible uptrend for January; but, we are not concerned as we may even skip our purchases in case of increases thanks to our good stocks.” A distributor also reported to have heard voices of possible increases, albeit in limited amounts.

A stable trend was also reported in the R-PP market, where supply and demand dynamics remained widely balanced in December. A recycler reported to have maintained his prices while he gave small discounts to his regular customers in a few cases. The seller commented, “Demand is generally weaker in December as buyers are not willing to build stocks ahead of the year-end. We heard voices of increases in January and we believe that this might stir buying interest.” Buyers confirmed their done deals with rollovers for December while they also reported voices of a possible uptrend on the heels of the awaited bullishness in the prime PP market.

Price ranges reported include an average freight cost to the customers’ location as well as duties if applicable, although VAT is not included.