Polypropylene prices

The present PE and polypropylene prices still do not allow for acceptable margins under the current market conditions. Based on this situation, Dow Plastics announced a price increase in Europe of 100 per metric tonne above January 2003 pricing levels for all polypropylene resins. Inspire performance polymers, LDPE resins and HDPE resins, Dowlex LLDPE resins, Attane ULDPE copolymers. Elite enhanced PE resins, and Aspun fibre grade resins. 

Table 6 shows the sales estimates for principal film and sheet products for the year 1990 (14). Low density polyethylene films dominate the market in volume, followed by polystyrene and the vinyls. High density polyethylene, poly(ethylene terephthalate), and polypropylene are close in market share and complete the primary products. A number of specialty resins are used to produce 25,000—100,000 t of film or sheet, and then there are a large number of high priced, high performance materials that serve niche markets. The original clear film product, ceUophane, has faUen to about 25,000 t in the United States, with only one domestic producer. Table 7 Hsts some of the principal film and sheet material manufacturers in the United States.

Table 11. U.S. Polypropylene Production, Capacity Utilization, and Prices ...

Polypropylene sheet has been used most extensively however, thermoplastic polyester, polycarbonate, and nylon versions are available (see Elastomers, synthetic Polycarbonates). Continuous strand glass fiber mat is the typical reinforcement. The limited number of sheet suppHers reduces potential for competitive pricing. 

In recent years general purpose polystyrene and high-impact polystyrenes have had to face intensive competition from other materials, particularly polypropylene, which has been available in recent years at what may best be described as an abnormally low price. Whilst polystyrene has lost some of it markets it has generally enjoyed increasing consumption and the more pessimistic predictions of a decline have as yet failed to materialise. Today about 75% of these materials are injection moulded whilst the rest is extruded and/or thermoformed. 

A manufacturer considering using a thermoplastic elastomer would probably first consider one of the thermoplastic polyolefin rubbers or TPOs, since these tend to have the lowest raw polymer price. These are mainly based on blends of polypropylene and an ethylene-propylene rubber (either EPM or EPDM) although some of the polypropylene may be replaeed by polyethylene. A wide range of blends are possible which may also contain some filler, oil and flame retardant in addition to the polymers. The blends are usually subject to dynamic vulcanisation as described in Section 11.9.1. 

Specialty waxes include polar waxes for more polar adhesive systems. Examples would be castor wax (triglyceride of 12-hydroxy stearic acid) or Paracin wax N- 2 hydroxy ethyl)-12-hydroxy stearamide) which are used in polyester, polyamide, or with high VA EVA copolymer-based systems. Other common polar waxes are maleated polyethylenes, which are used to improve the specific adhesion of polyethylene-based adhesives, and low molecular weight ethylene copolymers with vinyl acetate or acrylic acid, which are used to improve low temperature adhesion. High melting point isotactic polypropylene wax (7 155°C) and highly refined paraffin wax (7,n 83°C) are used where maximum heat resistance is critical. Needless to say, these specialty waxes also command a premium price, ranging from 2 to 5 times that of conventional paraffin wax. 

It is a popular misconception that plastics are cheap materials. They are not. On a weight basis most plastics are more expensive than steel and only slightly less expensive than aluminium. Prices for plastics can range from about 600 per tonne for polypropylene to about 25,000 per tonne for carbon fibre reinforced PEEK. Table 1.5 compares the costs of a range of plastics. 

Propylene, a light olefin, is like ethylene one of the most important feedstocks for the petrochemical industry. In recent years the main way to obtain propylene and ethylene has been via cracking of naphtha. For this reason the cost of the corresponding polymers, mainly polypropylene and polyethylene, depends on the international oil price. One big challenge for modem chemistry is to look for an alternative production of feedstocks that is independent of the oil-industry. 

In a time when prices for oil are continuously rising, hafnocene catalysts enable production of high-tech materials in a relatively cheap way. Hafnocenes are the key to a family of high and ultrahigh molecular weight polypropylenes whose material properties can be individually and simply varied. To help comprehend the importance... 

Based on the current situation that oil prices are continuously rising and the industrial process of natural gas to methanol, methanol to propylene, propylene to polypropylene becomes more important, it will be interesting to see what importance hafnocene-catalyzed polypropylenes will have in future daily life. 

Properties, processability and prices are intermediate between those of polypropylene and polyamide, mainly PA 6 and PA 66. 

Normal plastics, such as polypropylene (PP), with low prices and good ability of fhe injection molding process can be used as matrix materials in composite plates. However, the lower working temperature (around 70-80°C), lower... 

A very important field of polymerization, stereospecific polymerization, was opened in 1955. In this year, Natta and his coworkers (1—3) polymerized a-olefins to crystalline isotactic poly-a-olefins with the Ziegler catalyst, and Pruitt and Baggett (4,5) polymerized dl-propylene oxide to crystalline polypropylene oxide, which was later identified as an isotactic polymer by Price and his coworkers (6,7). Since then, a large number of compounds including both unsaturated and cyclic compounds were polymerized stereospecifically and asymmetrically. Development of the stereospecific polymerization stimulated... 

Another example is illustrated in the relationship between the specific rotation and the microstructure of polypropylene oxide reported by Price. Optically active propylene oxide and racemic propylene oxide-a-d were polymerized under otherwise identical conditions by the freeze-dried ZnEt2-H20 (1 0.7) catalyst system containing varying amounts of ZnEt2. A linear relationship was observed between specific rotation of the former polymer and the tail-to-tail dyad content of the latter (Fig. 14). This result proves quantitatively that the decrease in the specific rotation of polymer prepared by several catalysts is due to the presence of head-to-head and tail-to-tail linkages, and also provides supporting evidence for our microstructure analysis. 

Natural cork is the closure preferred by most producers of medium- to high-priced sparkling wine. The dimensions of corks are 31 mm in diameter and 48 mm in height. The upper part of the cork is composed of cork particles, 2-6 mm in size, bonded together with a polypropylene resin. There are two or three whole cork disks, 6 mm thick, bonded to the bottom of the... 

Commodity resins—High-volume, low-price thermoplastics (polyethylene, polypropylene, poly[vinyl chloride], polystyrene and other styrenics, and polyethylene terephthalate]). 

Synthetic polymers based on polyesters and co-polyesters are some of the most expensive biopolymers. Feedstock is expensive compared with biopolymers based on renewable resources and the production process is more complex and costly. Synthetic types can cost up to three times the price of commodity polymers such as polyethylene and polypropylene. 

Husky, a strategic partner in the development, has demonstrated production of NatureWorks PLA preforms on a HyPet 90 moulding system. Amcor is at an advanced stage of development with a PLA bottle project for at least one major European customer. However, pricing remains an issue. The PLA price is a bit on the high side compared with PET and polypropylene at the moment, but as volumes pick up the price gap will narrow. 

---