Polypropylene overview Transcript
Polypropylene or PP is a thermoplastic material that is mainly sold in resin pellets to processors who then shape it into a wide variety of products including car bumpers, oil containment booms and medicine caps.
US polypropylene has major end markets in automotive manufacturing and rigid packaging.
Some lower margin applications such as film and carpet have been largely outsourced from the US.
Most domestic contracts are linked to monomer benchmarks, so propylene market fluctuations are the main drivers of polypropylene contract prices.
In the recent years it has become more common for propylene shortages to cause rapid fluctuations in pricing for polypropylene and its feedstock.
The US polypropylene industry used to serve as a dependable export supplier to the world, but with the relatively high cost structure of feedstock, North America has become a more regional market.