Lilli Sherman

Senior Editor at Plastics Technology

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Articles

July 2025: Prices for Volume Resins Flat to Down Heading to Third Quarter

4 days ago | ptonline.com | Lilli Sherman

Projections for prices of all volume resins going into the third quarter were generally flat to down despite being slightly up in a few cases, based on supply/demand fundamentals, lower feedstock costs, and weaker domestic and exports sales. Looming over projections are concerns for the economy’s overall direction; continued lack of clarity on tariffs; and what is forecast to be an active hurricane season. These are the views of purchasing consultants from Resin Technology Inc.
June 2025: Prices for the Five Commodity Resins Flat to Down

1 month ago | ptonline.com | Lilli Sherman

Slowed domestic and export demand, lower feedstock costs, continuing uncertainty of tariffs and their impact on supply-demand fundamentals, and concerns about the overall economy’s direction are among the contributing factors for the flat-to-down trajectory of prices for polyethylene (PE) polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET).
May 2025: Prices for 4 of the 5 Commodity Resins Flat-to-Down

2 months ago | ptonline.com | Lilli Sherman

Dear Plastics Technology Audience Member: Starting on Thursday August 8, 2024, PT will begin “gating” its premium content, asking all new website users to provide some information about themselves — name, title, employer, email address — before they are provided free access to the content. We are doing this because the ways PT’s audience finds and accesses our content is changing.
April 2025: Mixed Bag for Prices of Volume Resins

Mar 26, 2025 | ptonline.com | Lilli Sherman

Prices of volume resins going toward the second quarter were indeed a mixed bag — higher for polyolefins, a bit higher for polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and flat for all other resins. Projections for at least the early second quarter, which typically exhibits an uptick in demand, were also mixed.
March 2025 Resin Pricing: Commodity Resin Prices Firm Up

Feb 25, 2025 | ptonline.com | Lilli Sherman

Prices of the five commodity resins were on the rise within the first part of first quarter due to contributing factors like freezing weather production disruptions, rising feedstock costs and a higher-than-typical number of scheduled turnarounds for key feedstocks. This, along with the impact of the returning Trump administration’s enaction of tariffs. (As of Feb.
Prices Generally Trending Upward for the Five Commodity Resins

Jan 21, 2025 | ptonline.com | Lilli Sherman

Barring weather-related or other unscheduled production interruptions — including the potential of a strike by the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) against the nation’s East and Gulf Coast ports before the end of January — prices of the five major commodity resins were still projected to be on an upward trajectory at press time. This is the case despite slowed domestic demand and the overall buyers’ market experienced during 2025 contract negotiations at the end of 2024.
Medical Grade TPEs for Biopharmaceutical Tubing

Dec 6, 2024 | ptonline.com | Lilli Sherman

Thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) for demanding biopharmaceutical tubing applications have been added to the Medalist portfolio of TPEs from Teknor Apex. This new series of TPE compounds are tailored to address the unique challenges associated with the continuous processing of biopharmaceuticals through roller pumps.
Light-Blocking Additive for PET Dairy Packaging

Dec 4, 2024 | ptonline.com | Lilli Sherman

A light-blocking additive developed and launched by Avient is said to enable blocking of 100% of visible light in monolayer PET dairy packaging. ColorMatrix Lactra LX Light Blocking Additive is suitable for ultrahigh-temperature liquid dairy containers, which have longer shelf life requirements and are often stored under ambient conditions. In addition to preserving the quality of dairy products and helping to extend shelf life, this solid masterbatch additive also delivers a bright white color.
Packaging Converter Adopts PE-Based Vacuum Skin Packaging (VSP) for Food Applications

Dec 2, 2024 | ptonline.com | Lilli Sherman

Brazilian packaging converter Videplast worked with ExxonMobil to come up with a cost-effective and optimal vacuum skin packaging (VSP) product for a variety of food applications that offers reduced film thickness while still providing superior performance and containing no ionomers.
OCSiAl Opens First Large-Scale Graphene Nanotube Plant

Dec 2, 2024 | ptonline.com | Lilli Sherman

Tuball dispersion quality control. Source: OCSiAlLuxembourg-based OCSiAl (U.S. office in Columbus, Ohio), a global leader in graphene nanotube technology, has opened its first large-scale production facility in Serbia. The nearly 108,000-square-foot facility will produce 132,217 lbs of OCSiAl’s Tuball nanotubes the first year, with plans to double production by launching a second synthesis unit within the next year, according to OCSiAl Group CEO Konstantin Notman.