Current situation:
- Producer prices for HDPE pipe were up 3.4% M/M (up 2.6% last month), and were up 5.7% Y/Y (up 1.8% Y/Y last month). Plastic pipe fittings and unions were up 1.5% M/M (down 0.4% last month) and were up 1.3% Y/Y (down 0.3% last month).
Key factors that could affect supply or price:
- Pipe continues to be very tight and resin is a mess. Lead times continue to be long with plenty of inventory outages. Pipe producers are running at full tilt if they can get enough resin. Only resin producer Shintech is operating at full capacity, Formosa is still having issues and Westlake is making progress, but is not out of the woods yet.
- September resin was up $.055/lb., and October will be up $.065/lb. Areas where the recent hurricanes hit have had continual power issues as many power lines were damaged, so an already tight resin market will most likely remain so through the end of the year.
