China's oxo-alcohols market will see supply glut recently in the face of intensive new plant start-ups, but tepid downstream demand.

Net import volumes may plunge in the short term because of overseas plant turnrounds and rising domestic supply, but whether this could sustain still depends on overseas plant operations and import arbitrage opportunities.

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Several ICIS market experts share insightful facts related to their respective plastics markets, amid conversations with industry professionals at PackExpo '24. Though each market comes with a host of uncertainties, the broader US plastic packaging industry continues to navigate mixed demand and various supply challenges in 2024 and beyond.

• Bottled beverage sector made up 15% of all US packaging revenue in 2023.
• US polyethylene terephthalate (PET) production to remain 3 billion lbs short of domestic demand in 2025.
• US polystyrene (PS) production has been impacted by outages since July 2024.
• US polypropylene (PP) prices have been volatile, with price movements 11 out of the last 12 months.
• US polyethylene (PE) inventories are the highest they have been since May 2023.
• US recycled PET (R-PET) market facing onslaught of imports. 2Q2024 PET scrap import volumes were above 125 million lbs.

LONDON (ICIS)---Relatively flat demand trends and evolving global supply dynamics evident in H2 2024 are expected to largely persist within the European acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and acrylonitrile (ACN) markets in Q1 2025.

In this latest podcast, Europe ABS report editor Stephanie Wix and her counterpart on the Europe ACN report, Nazif Nazmul, share the latest developments and expectations for what lies ahead.

• Macroeconomic challenges expected to continue limiting ABS and ACN demand through Q4 into Q1 2025
• ABS and ACN availability likely to remain lengthy
• Import-led ABS competition could increase in Q1 2025

ABS is the largest-volume engineering thermoplastic resin and is used in automobiles, electronics and recreational products.

ACN is used in the production of synthetic fibres for clothing and home furnishings, engineering plastics and elastomers.