© 2026 Resintel. All rights reserved. Supply/Demand data provided by and copyrighted by the American Chemistry Council.
Highlights
Domestic PE and PP prices gain a half cent today
Spot PGP gains another half cent
Inflation stays in check
Trump breaks off negotiations with Canada
Resin Markets
Spot resin trading coasted into the weekend with volumes on the day being less than average for the month. October as a whole has been strong, the second largest of the year for our trading desk. Prices rose a half cent today for domestic PE and PP on strong buying activity all week and asking prices from sellers being higher. Also low bids from last week were confidently turned away all week. However, the export market managed to stay flat, with offgrade cleaning up and ticking higher but prime holding and staying generally under pressure.
Dow has restarted units 5 and 7 from their fire on October 6th at their Freeport, TX facility while unit 6 remains shut with no immediate timeline for its restart. The production being down has had no immediate effect on prices however when coupled with LBIs export letter and a general effort to raise asking prices and resisting low bids has led to a slight shift in sentiment. We expect export volumes to be significant when tallied up and with disciplined production and unplanned outages a sizable inventory draw could develop.
Polypropylene has also slightly firmed with PGP ticking higher into the weekend, buyers have been picking off the cheap deals that remained and some are now jumping in not wanting to miss out. It's too early to say that any sort of bottom is in or long term up trend is starting but for now the bleeding has stopped. Will it continue next week? Stay tuned.
Below is a recap of our domestic Resindex prices and their change this week, both PE and PP gained a half cent:
HDPE Blow: $0.485/lb (+$.005/lb)
HDPE Injection: $0.47/lb (+$.005/lb)
HMWPE: $0.48/lb (+$.005/lb)
LDPE Film: $0.53/lb (+$.005/lb)
LLDPE Film: $0.49lb (+$.005/lb)
LDPE Injection: $0.595/lb (+$.005/lb)
LLDPE Injection: $0.525/lb (+$.005/lb)
Homopolymer PP: $0.495/lb (+$.005/lb)
Copolymer PP: $0.555/lb (+$.005/lb)
Below is a recap of our export Resindex prices, flat for the week:
HDPE Blow: $893/MT (Flat)
HDPE Injection: $893/MT (Flat)
HMWPE: $893/MT (Flat)
LDPE Film: $1047/MT (Flat)
LLDPE Film: $926/MT (Flat)
LDPE Injection: $1135/MT (Flat)
LLDPE Injection: $1047/MT (Flat)
Homopolymer PP: $937/MT (Flat)
Copolymer PP: $1047/MT (Flat)
Monomer Markets
Monomer trading was lighter again today but October PGP moved up another half cent to $.26/lb putting it up $.01125/lb for the week, the first winning week since the second week in September. First quarter 2026 did also trade at $.3125/lb. Ethylene also had a very steady week only slipping an eighth of a penny and finishing at $.185/lb.
US Economic Data
The U.S. economy kept moving in October, even with the federal shutdown grinding on in the background. S&P’s PMI data showed services jumping to a three-month high at 55.2, while manufacturing nudged up to 52.2, signaling steady expansion. Still, businesses are feeling the squeeze, tariffs are lifting input costs and consumer confidence continues to slip with the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment release coming in at 53.6 rather than an expected 54.9 and September’s 55.1 There’s an uneasy undercurrent as companies hold off on new hires and investments until Washington and trade policy find further footing.
We also did get some inflation data released even with the government shutdown hitting day 24 and it appears inflation is in check. CPI for September came in at .3% versus an expected .4% and .4% in August. Core CPI came in at .2% versus an expected .3%. This clears the way for the Fed to cut rates next week to try and fuel it’s other major concern, employment.
Russia - Ukraine
Sanctions on Russian oil continue to impact the market with oil prices higher much of today, they did end up selling off slightly to end the week and WTI closed at $61.50/bbl, up $3.96/bbl, 6.8%.President Putin called the act unfriendly and vowed to continue with its efforts.
Global Trade
Trade drama flared again with Canada this week as President Trump abruptly ended negotiations last night, blasting a government sponsored ad that used an old Ronald Reagan clip criticizing tariffs. Ottawa quickly moved to pull the ad, but the dust-up underscored just how fragile U.S. and Canada relations have become. Canada has been very vocal about finding other trading partners to diversify away from the US so it’s not surprise the US wouldn’t find these tactics complimentary. Prime Minister Carney said this morning that he is ready to resume talks whenever we are ready.
Washington has just turned up the heat on Bogotá, the U.S. sanctioned Colombian President Gustavo Petro, his family, and top officials, accusing them of fueling the global drug trade. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said production has surged to decades-high levels, “flooding the U.S.,”. Colombia has been a strong Latin American trading partner and US resin flows there regularly. Given China’s recent competitiveness to the region any further tension could slow PE and PP exports from the US.
Storm Watch
Tropical storm Melissa, which will become a hurricane shortly, is now expected to be a dangerous storm that will cause a lot of damage. Models still show the storm staying away from US shores but its path has been fairly unpredictable.
Thank you all for reading, have a great weekend.
-Dominick Russo, CFA
Copyright © 2025. Resintel. All rights reserved