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Article: Wary buyers keep polyethylene supplies lean despite low prices.
- Article from:
- Purchasing
- Article date:
- April 9, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Reed Business Information, Inc. (US). This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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By Gordon Graff
Polyethylene prices have been in freefall over the past six months, and are now little more than half of what they were last summer, when they rode the inflationary oil price rocket to record highs. But polyethylene buyers, worried about feeble downstream demand for their products, are not rushing to stock up on the material even at bargain prices. Polyethylene prices may inch up in the next quarter, but no one is predicting an imminent return of the towering rates seen last year.
The tumbling polyethylene prices of the final quarter of 2008 were due in large part to the drop in the cash cost of producing ethylene, says Howard Rappaport, ...