BlueClover

Check out BlueClover's HERO Prime (Generic Prime) & HERO Green (Post-Consumer & Post-Industrial Recycled) Polypropylene line cards!

?? Market Update: March 5th, 2025 ??Propylene: spot propylene traded at 41.75 as of Monday March 4th, down a full penny from where it traded on the market last week. Contract monomer for February settled up 4cpp to 48cpp on the month primarily driven by an overall shortage of monomer in the market as a result of Enterprise PDH1 & PDH2 unit being down for parts of February. The overall decrease we're seeing in propylene to start the month is a result of low producer operating rates coupled with lackluster demand for polypropylene. Producers aren't running their plants at higher rates meaning there is less demand for PGP. ?Polypropylene: spot widespec and prime offers have been thinner to start the month on account of the lower operating rates and when cars have been offered, they're tracking closer to where monomer settled last month compared to where monomer is in the current spot market. The market is still relatively disjointed when it comes to pricing expectations between producers and customers. Producers are wanting to cover their feedstock costs and customers are just buying enough inventory to meet their existing demand vs buying a lot of material in advance in the elevated pricing environment. Overall consumer confidence has dipped with the implementation of the promised tariffs under the new presidential administration and most sectors of the market are flat or contracting. Overall, our team is expecting a busier back half of March to end the 1st quarter and we do expect to continue to see PP & PGP prices rise over this time period, though not as much as our initial guesses. Subscribe to our "Brainfood Report" at https://lnkd.in/gP2Mv3Ax and get our full market insights, POV, and more sent directly to your inbox!

?? Market Update: February 18th, 2025 ??Propylene: spot propylene traded at 45.5cpp as of Friday February 14th. It has had a see-saw effect this month starting off trading in the mid-40s to start the month, retreating to 42.75cpp about two weeks ago, than rapidly increasing to north of 45cpp at the end of last week. The primary driver of the increase in pricing is a tight supply of spot propylene as Enterprise PDH1 is down and their PDH2 unit is under Force Majeure. This is your friendly reminder that 1). propylene is 2.5x more volatile than your 401k and 2). that BlueClover can help you manage / reduce this volatility by locking in a fixed price for a portion of your resin from anywhere from 3-12 months at a time. Even if a fixed price plan / hedging program is not in your immediate purview, it doesn't hurt to have a high level phone call just to understand the benefits. ?Polypropylene: spot widespec and prime offers have been steady this month though there is another disconnect in the market in terms of pricing. With propylene continuing its climb, producers are pricing their spot resin above where a lot of spot buyers are willing to pay in order to protect their margins. Additionally, with Enterprise PDH1 & PDH2 down, the tighter supply is just creating a lot of unknowns of where monomer is going to end the month. If you have spot needs, there is material available with widespec HOPP cars trading in the high 40s/low 50s depending on specs. Quality COPP has have been more of a challenge to come by but we would expect those cars to be in the low to mid-50s depending on specs. Subscribe to our "Brainfood Report" at https://lnkd.in/gP2Mv3Ax and get our full market insights, POV, and more sent directly to your inbox!

?? Market Update: February 4th, 2025 ??Propylene: spot propylene has been trading in the 44-45cpp range for the last week after settling up 5cpp for the month end January 2025. We appear to be past the winter storms that were affecting supply of PGP, but propane pricing is still elevated and Enterprise PDH1 remains down following an unplanned outage in mid-January. While demand is still soft for PP, we still expect to see a lift in propylene pricing and subsequently PP pricing throughout this month given the headwinds facing the PGP supply. Our team is currently forecasting a Feb contract settlement price of 54cpp. ?Polypropylene: spot widespec and prime offers have improved over the past couple of weeks as producers have increased their operating rates to start the year. We are actively monitoring the tariff situation which we would expect to modestly affect domestic supply if they're ultimately implemented in 30 days, though as of February 3rd, the 25% tariffs on general goods and 10% tariffs on energy that were imposed on both Canada & Mexico have been lifted for 30 days; the 10% tariffs imposed on China still remain in place. These tariffs are significant for a multitude of reasons that include a projected increase in the cost of everyday goods for citizens in America as well as Mexico and Canada, the ability to profitably manufacture goods as the supply chains between the 3 countries are heavily integrated across multiple industries, and a notable disruption to the supply of PP as both Canada and Mexico have world scale producers in Heartland and Indelpro. Subscribe to our "Brainfood Report" at https://lnkd.in/gP2Mv3Ax and get our full market insights, POV, and more sent directly to your inbox!

?? Market Update: February 4th, 2025 ??Propylene: spot propylene has been trading in the 44-45cpp range for the last week after settling up 5cpp for the month end January 2025. We appear to be past the winter storms that were affecting supply of PGP, but propane pricing is still elevated and Enterprise PDH1 remains down following an unplanned outage in mid-January. While demand is still soft for PP, we still expect to see a lift in propylene pricing and subsequently PP pricing throughout this month given the headwinds facing the PGP supply. Our team is currently forecasting a Feb contract settlement price of 54cpp. ?Polypropylene: spot widespec and prime offers have improved over the past couple of weeks as producers have increased their operating rates to start the year. We are actively monitoring the tariff situation which we would expect to modestly affect domestic supply if they're ultimately implemented in 30 days, though as of February 3rd, the 25% tariffs on general goods and 10% tariffs on energy that were imposed on both Canada & Mexico have been lifted for 30 days; the 10% tariffs imposed on China still remain in place. These tariffs are significant for a multitude of reasons that include a projected increase in the cost of everyday goods for citizens in America as well as Mexico and Canada, the ability to profitably manufacture goods as the supply chains between the 3 countries are heavily integrated across multiple industries, and a notable disruption to the supply of PP as both Canada and Mexico have world scale producers in Heartland and Indelpro. Subscribe to our "Brainfood Report" at https://lnkd.in/gP2Mv3Ax and get our full market insights, POV, and more sent directly to your inbox!

?? Market Update: January 21st, 2025 ??Propylene: spot propylene has continued to rally over the past two weeks settling at 43cpp as of Monday January 20th. There are a couple of things that are likely impacting the price of PGP at the moment: 1). increased operating rates by PP producers to start off the new year (this is consistent with what has happened historically) 2). planned down time for 9 crackers in the United States throughout Q1 creating more reliance on PDH units to produce enough PGP to meet current demand and 3). this winter storm that has recently hit the Houston / South Texas area. The impact on the winter storm is still TBD but George Bush and Houston Hobby are both closed today which tells us that this is something that needs to be monitored. ?Polypropylene: spot polypro offers have been steady but have not been flooding into the re-sale market. Good HOPP cars have been easier to come by than quality impact COPP cars with a 2+ izod, but that is not a new story line. Producers have also been offering a good stream of spot prime cars into the market as well. While December is historically the time where you can get the most bang for your buck with PP, January is looking to be a month where there are some deals out there. With PGP pricing picking up daily, the floor price for widespec & spot prime PP cars is also lifting in tandem. Subscribe to our "Brainfood Report" at https://lnkd.in/gP2Mv3Ax and get our full market insights, POV, and more sent directly to your inbox!

?? Market Update: January 7th, 2025 Happy New Year and Happy "Circle Back" Season! ??Propylene: as we spoke about at length through November / December 2024, and as expected based on historical data, PGP has started to climb to start off the New Year trading at at 40cpp as of Monday January 6th, up 1cpp from the contract settlement price of 39cpp for December 2024. Markets have been slow after the long holiday week, but we're expecting production to pick back up, and with that demand and pricing for Polymer Grade Propylene. According to ICIS, "at least nine crackers are shutting down for planned maintenance between mid-December and April" putting heavier dependency on PDH units. With increased pricing for propane (feedstock that PDH units utilize to produce PGP), we would expect to see an increase in PGP through the first 3 months of this year. ?Polypropylene: we are expecting a bit more parity in the market this year with supply and demand balancing out more. We have not seen as many spot opportunities for widespec and prime to start the year, but we do expect that to change as producers start ratcheting up operating rates as they typically do in January. With the aforementioned reliance on PDH units during 1Q, expect to see PP pricing increase as well throughout the 1st quarter. Subscribe to our "Brainfood Report" at https://lnkd.in/gP2Mv3Ax and get our full market insights, POV, and more sent directly to your inbox!

?? Happy New Year! ?? As we step into 2025, the BlueClover team is filled with gratitude for the lessons learned, the connections made, and the opportunities ahead. Here's to setting bold goals, embracing new challenges, and creating meaningful impact together in the #plastics industry. Whether you are one of our valued suppliers, customers, or business colleagues, we're greatful for the business that we've done together and are looking forward to grow with you this year! Wishing you all a year of growth, success, and happiness! Let’s make it an incredible one. ?? #HappyNewYear #NewBeginnings #2025

?? Market Update: December 10th, 2024 ?? ??Propylene: Spot propylene has continued its slide last trading at 35cpp on Monday December 9th, a 10% decrease from where it was trading at the end of November. Overall demand for PGP and PP has been relatively weak this month as is typical for the last trading month of the calendar year. The flood of demand that came in for cheap material to start the month would normally point to short term lift in PGP, however, we are finding that operating rates have continued to remain where they have been, if not further scaled back to close out the year. Because of these factors, our team is revising our prediction for December contract PGP to 40cpp from 44cpp two weeks ago. If December contract PGP were to settle at 40cpp this would put the 4th quarter average at approx. 42cpp. Despite the continued weakness in PGP, BlueClover still estimates 55cpp for the 1Q 2025 contract PGP average price (this is unchanged from our last report). ?Polypropylene: There was a fury at the beginning of the month to buy the cheap widespec and Generic Prime PP cars that the market has grown accustomed to seeing, though the land rush was rather short lived and only lasted a couple of days. What we have seen is cars that have tighter specs were bought up in the first couple of days, and what is left is either very wide widespec at the price point consumers are wanting to pay, or pencil prime / generic prime cars that are running a premium to the widespec market. In PP operational news, Formosa’s new PP capacity in Point Comfort, TX is now expected to start up in the 2nd half of 2025. BlueClover was expecting the 1st half of 2025. Subscribe to our "Brainfood Report" at https://lnkd.in/gP2Mv3Ax and get our full market insights, POV, and more sent directly to your inbox!

?? Market Update: November 26th, 2024 ?? ??Propylene: Spot PGP has been hovering in the mid to high 30s for over two weeks now with the most recent settlement being at 36.5cpp as of Monday November, 25th. Industry news outlets reported that Enterprise’s PDH1 unit went down recently, however, the PGP market has seemed to absorb this outage well which we can attribute to the overall lack of demand for PP going into the final month of the year. BlueClover's estimate for contract settlement for November PGP is currently 41cpp, flat month over month when compared to October. our current estimate for December settlement is 44cpp. We typically see monomer explode to start the year as producers ramp up operating rates, so if you have contract business that you would like to hedge/ lock in a fixed price for, the next few weeks are the time to do it while monomer is at a yearly low. ?Polypropylene: There has been a big pull back in PP operating rates the past couple of months. This lever was pulled to decrease the PP days of supply inventory number which was too high. Simultaneously PP producers and distributors lowered pricing to sell excess inventories heading into the end of the year. These two measures are close to successfully rebalancing the PP excess supply. Demand has been ok from the USA market. PP sales increased almost 3% in October compared to September as reported by the American Chemistry Council. We're seeing less spot availability for tighter HOPP and COPP cars as producers have pulled back operating rates, and while there is a chunk of material moving into the export market, there are still deals to made out there for both prime and widespec PP. Subscribe to our "Brainfood Report" at https://lnkd.in/gP2Mv3Ax and get our full market insights, POV, and more sent directly to your inbox!