Plastics: Waiting for an Upturn

Global demand for basic polymers—polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polystyrene (PS)—is not expected to rise much, if at all, this year. Producers cite buyer reluctance amid the economic downturn, but there is optimism that demand will begin to grow for certain polymers as early as 2010. Overall polymer volumes sank 18% in the fourth quarter of 2008, compared with the year-ago period. “Downstream end-use customers were consuming resins from their inventories at a faster pace than sales, about 910 million lbs per month faster,” says...

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