ICIS Expands US Recycled PET Pricing Intelligence

HOUSTON, 24 February 2022 – ICIS, a global source of Independent Commodity Intelligence Services, announces expanded market analysis for the growing recycled polyethylene terephthalate (R-PET) market in the United States. The new weekly US R-PET service provides benchmarkable pricing and valuable intelligence on PET bales, R-PET flakes and R-PET pellets, to help buyers and sellers transact with confidence and bring transparency into contract negotiations.

Driven by global brands making sustainability commitments around recycled content in their products, there is a high and growing demand for recycled plastics, but currently there is not enough supply in the market. Today there is no US-wide regulation that mandates the use of recycled content, however, several states, such as California, have mandates in place, further driving demand and a need for information.

This rising demand has intensified price risk and the need for indexation in contracts to a reliable index. Even without indexation, the need for reliable pricing is required for negotiation and planning as the US recycled plastics market has limited transparency and is often not well understood.

“There is a huge requirement for data in the recycling industry to help companies make effective buying and selling decisions, as well as to bring more transparency to the market,” Helen McGeough Senior Analyst & Global Analyst Team Lead, Plastic Recycling at ICIS said. “Combined with the ICIS Recycling Supply Trackers, this means we will be able to support our customers in the region with both pricing and sourcing challenges. This will allow customers to understand the pricing dynamics for R-PET in the US and enable them to make more effective buying and selling decisions. It will also bring more transparency to a very opaque, growing market, and one which many players are unaccustomed to navigating.”

The availability of reliable, up-to-date pricing will benefit the entire plastics value chain. Many fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) organisations have global sustainability targets linked to the usage of recycled plastic. Understanding the pricing dynamics for this market is critical, as it will help participants understand how much they should be paying for the material and how changing to recycled plastics may impact their overall costs. For convertors, as a buyer in this value chain, having an independent price to benchmark against will enable organizations to target their prices and support selling decisions. For mechanical recyclers who are buying the bales to feed into their recycling processes, this will enable greater visibility of industry pricing and support selling decisions. For virgin PET producers, the development and traction in the recycled market means that this is also a market that requires deep understanding to keep track on movements and prices and how this may impact them.

“The pricing service will provide transparency and insight on prices for R-PET in the US for those who are already using or may be exploring increasing their usage of R-PET in their portfolio to achieve their sustainability targets around recycled content.” McGeough added. “It will also support those who are selling R-PET in the US with pricing transparency supporting their selling strategy and decisions.

“This latest pricing tool complements current tools providing intelligence on R-PET in the US, R-PE pricing in other regions, and our Recycling Supply Trackers. It is another important step in our circular plastics solutions, which have already proved to be of immense value to our customers. It will help meet both pricing and sourcing challenges for this increasingly important sector.”

About ICIS

ICIS is a trusted source of global commodity intelligence for the energy, chemical and fertilizer industry. We are a division of RELX, a FTSE 15 company with a market cap of £43.3 billion and an employee base of over 30,000 experts across 40 countries.

At ICIS, we help businesses make strategic decisions, mitigate risk, improve productivity, and capitalise on new opportunities. We make some of the world’s most important markets more trusted and predictable by providing data services, thought leadership and decision tools. As a result of our unmatched global presence, we can deliver targeted connected intelligence to influence thousands of decisions across supply chains every single day. We shape the world by connecting markets to optimise the world’s valuable resources. With a global team of more than 600 experts, ICIS has employees based in London, New York, Houston, Karlsruhe, Milan, Mumbai, Singapore, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Dubai, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Tokyo and Perth.

About RELX

RELX is a global provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. The Group serves customers in more than 180 countries and has offices in about 40 countries. It employs approximately 30,000 people of whom almost half are in North America. RELX PLC is a London listed holding company which owns 52.9% of RELX Group. RELX NV is an Amsterdam listed holding company which owns 47.1% of RELX Group. The shares are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RELX and RENX. Total market capitalisation is approximately £43.3bn | €51.9bn | $59.1bn.