Reduced supply, rising oil costs lead to boost in recycled PET resin prices

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Recycled PET resin pellet prices have begun to recover and show an increase after showing only drops during the past year.

According to sources in discussion with Plastics News, PET resin prices on average increased by 4 cents per pound this quarter.

Clear post-consumer PET pellets increased by 5 cents and green post-consumer pellets are up by 3 cents. These changes are shown on this week"s Plastics News resin pricing chart.

"A lot of people were emptying out their warehouses before, leading to such a surplus, but now that demand is increasing, markets are beginning to recover," said a recycling consultant from the East Coast of the U.S.

"it"s possible the fiber markets are beginning to decline leaving the bottle companies to main users of recycled PET," the consultant added.

Recycled PET prices are expected to continue going up within the next few months and into 2024. Prices over the first and second quarter of 2023 fell due to a lack of demand and the price decrease in virgin resin.

"I"ve heard from others also, it"s expected to go up a few more cents through the end of the year," said a recycler from California.

"Crude oil [prices are] going up, maybe there"s a connection there because crude oil is definitely connected to the domestic resin market," the recycler added.

* source : https://www.plasticsnews.com/resin-pricing/recycled-pet-resin-prices-drop-due-reduced-supply-rising-oil-costs