PODCAST: Global PET faces months of supply disruption due to logistics

LONDON (ICIS)–The global polyethylene terephthalate (PET) industry continues to experience severe disruptions caused by high freight costs and a lingering container shortage.

• Ripple effect through value chain from crude, naphtha, PX, PTA, MEG to PET
• Container freight costs from Asia sustaining at highs after tripling in Q4 2020
• Europe short as customers replace and replenish stocks
• Inventories low across the Americas and Europe
• US domestic PET becomes more competitive than imports
• Higher freight costs render LatAm PET expensive

Interview with ICIS senior editor, Caroline Murray, senior editor , Hazel Goh and markets editor, Luly Stephens.

PET resins can be broadly classified into bottle, fibre or film grade, named according to the downstream applications. Bottle grade resin is the most commonly traded form of PET resin and it is used in bottle and container packaging through blow moulding and thermoforming.

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