My son graduated from 5th grade yesterday. Watching him walk through that arch of balloons, one thought kept in my head, that what got him here isn't going to be enough for what's next.

The same is true for resin buyers right now.

April was the inflection month. The $0.30/lb PE increase that landed. The PP run-up. The benzene spikes that pushed nylon 6, polystyrene, and the rest of the aromatics higher. The cycle shifted, and the procurement strategies most teams built — they were built for a different market.

In this episode, I run through the four major resins: PE holding flat but not safe, PP pushing June increases before May even settles, PA66 facing a structural capacity story that starts in July, and PVC — the first major resin to peak and turn, taken down by Chinese carbide-based export competition that overwhelmed domestic producer discipline before the increase could gain traction.

The through-line: the teams navigating this well know their benchmark before the nomination arrives. Not after. The nomination letter is a claim. The benchmark is the answer. If you don't have the answer ready, you're reacting — and reacting is always more expensive.

Subscribe for weekly market updates. If you're heading into a contract conversation and want a second set of eyes, reach out directly. No pitch. Just the conversation.

What's covered this week:

• Why May "flat" in PE isn't the same as a soft market.
• PP: June increases already announced, TotalEnergies force majeure still active, Phillips 66 turnaround ahead.
• PA66: BASF's $0.16/lb May increase and why the Celanese Singapore closure changes the structural conversation now.
• PVC: the first major resin to peak and turn — what Chinese carbide-based exports did to domestic producer discipline.
• PS: benzene-driven cost push overriding soft fundamentals — and why you should still push back on polystyrene nominations pointing to demand.

Contact Michael: [email protected] | 214-984-2977 ResinSmart | Powered by RTi Global | Since 1998

The resin market divided itself in May — and the right move in one half is the wrong move in the other. 

In this week's episode, Michael Workman breaks down what's actually happening across all nine major resin markets and why buyers who treat them the same right now are leaving money in one category while overpaying in another. 

PE is going flat despite a $0.20/lb nomination — buyer resistance is working, and the data supports holding the line. PET is getting genuine feedstock relief as PX expectations reversed from a 4¢/lb increase to a slight decline. 

But benzene is approaching $5.00/gal, INEOS has reportedly refused new ABS business until August, and PA66 is facing a structural supply reduction before July that most buyers haven't priced into their H2 plans. 

Michael also shares what Bill Bowie — 30+ years in the industry — said about the mistake buyers make when markets split, and why the PA66 story this week is more about M&A and plant closures than feedstocks.

TOPICS COVERED

• Why May is a completely different market than April
• The benzene-chain resins: ABS, PS, PC, PA6, PA66 — cost support is real, here's what to do
• PE going flat: what the ACC data shows and why buyer resistance is winning
• PET relief window: how long it lasts and how to use it
• PA66 structural story: Celanese Singapore closure, Lone Star / DOMO / RadiciGroup — what it means for H2 contracts
• Nine-resin recap: specific action for each market 

KEY DATA POINTS

• PE inventory draw: 23.3M lbs (more moderate than expected)
• PE days of supply: 35 — demand rates -2%, operating rates -2%
• Benzene: $4.95/gal — up $0.30 on the week
• Caprolactam: $1,857/mt and still climbing
• PA66 Celanese Singapore: 55,000 tpa closing after July 2026
• Lone Star acquisitions: DOMO (May 12) + RadiciGroup HPP (Apr 30)
• PX: reversed from +4¢/lb expectation to a slight decline
• WTI: $101.02 · Brent: $105.63 

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This week delivered five market-moving events in seven days: crude oil swung 12% in 48 hours, TotalEnergies declared Force Majeure at LaPorte, Braskem challenged Brazilian antidumping duties on US PE, Celanese announced PA66 capacity closures, and Lone Star Funds moved to consolidate two major PA66 producers.

Michael Workman breaks down what's signal vs. noise — and introduces the framework he shared at FlexForum this week: the instrument panel model for procurement. You can't predict market turbulence. But buyers who know their benchmark, their leverage map, and their cost model don't need to.

This episode covers: 

• Why PE nominations up 20¢/lb are margin expansion, not cost recovery 
• What the PA66 capacity closures mean structurally 
• How to read a Force Majeure letter before accepting a price increase 
• And the Half-Penny Principle every convertor should understand.

#resin prices #polyethylene market 2026 #polypropylene Force Majeure #PA66 capacity closures #Celanese #resin procurement strategy #plastic raw material costs #resin market update May 2026 #PET pricing forecast #polymer cost intelligence

Four consecutive months of PP contracts finishing higher. Benzene up 62 cents in a month. PVC at 16 days of supply. It feels like you're killing a penalty that never ends.

But disciplined buyers don't drop the stick.

This week, Michael Workman breaks down the market across PP, PS, ABS, PC, and PVC — and more importantly, where buyers still have leverage right now before May nominations fully land.

Key topics:

• The 6¢ margin enhancement buried inside PP's April increase — and what your contract language says about it
• Why PC and ABS are cost stories, not scarcity stories — and why that matters for how hard you push back
• The ABS window: at least one major producer not taking new orders through year-end
• Four specific actions for this week
• Why protecting the crease is the right procurement posture right now

Also: the kids show up exactly when they were told to. Penalty killing at home is a different sport.

If you're at Flex Forum next week — come find us.

Powered by ResinSmart and the RESIN8 engine — real transaction data, trusted cost models, no more guesswork. resinsmart.ai

This week’s Resin Market Moves focuses on a dynamic that doesn’t show up in market reports, but is actively shaping outcomes in April: increase fatigue.

With polyethylene, polypropylene, ABS, PVC, nylons, and PET all moving higher at the same time, buyers are being hit with a volume of increase letters that’s difficult to process — and in many cases, they’re disengaging at exactly the wrong moment.

Michael Workman, CMO of ResinSmart, breaks down the current market setup across the major resin categories, explains why the cost floor is being reset upstream by crude and feedstocks, and outlines why the gap between nominated and realized price is still very much in play.

He also shares a practical negotiation approach that top buyers use in cycles like this — and why the most important lever right now isn’t process or contract language, but the direct conversation with your supplier rep.

If your current response to increase letters is to file them and move on, this episode is for you.

Topics covered:

• Broad-based resin increases across PE, PP, ABS, PVC, PET, and nylons
• Crude oil above $100 and the geopolitical premium in the market
• PE nominations stacking into May and cumulative Q2 exposure
• PP PGP feedstock strength and tightening supply dynamics
• ABS spread signaling uncertainty in producer expectations
• PVC turnarounds driving inventory drawdowns
• Nylon feedstock spikes and downstream cost implications
• The concept of “increase fatigue” and how it impacts buyer behavior
• Why nominations are not the final number — and where leverage still exists
• The role of supplier relationships in determining realized price outcomes
• A simple call framework to improve negotiation results in real time

ResinSmart is the buyer-side resin market intelligence platform built on 25+ years of real transaction data.

Learn more at resinsmart.ai.

Connect with Michael on LinkedIn.

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There’s a lot of noise in the resin market right now.

Headlines, supplier messaging, market updates—it’s constant. And when things get volatile, it’s easy to feel like you need to react to all of it.

In this session, we talk through how we separate real signals from noise. What actually matters, what doesn’t, and how strong procurement teams make better decisions when the market is moving.

We cover:

•  What’s actually driving resin pricing right now 
•  The most common mistakes buyers make during disruptions 
•  Why fundamentals matter more than headlines 
•  How better teams prepare instead of just reacting 
•  Real examples of how we analyze what’s happening in the market 

This was recorded live on April 22nd with our team in Fort Worth, so it’s a bit more conversational—but it’s a good look at how we think through these situations in real time.

If you’re responsible for buying resin or trying to make sense of the market, this should be useful.

There's a story Michael Workman lived through that's especially relevant now. It goes back to his time in sales at PolyOne, when a rigorous deal autopsy process surfaced an uncomfortable truth: the number one business reason they were losing deals wasn't service, wasn't competitive pricing, wasn't relationships. It was that their resin input costs were wrong at the time of quoting.

In this episode, Michael unpacks that discovery — and what it revealed about the structural information gap that still affects every plastic processor's commercial performance today. When resin is 40–60% of your part cost, wrong cost assumptions don't just affect procurement. They travel all the way into the quote, the margin, and the P&L.

Then: the April 17, 2026 market read. A crude pullback on U.S.-Iran ceasefire news has created some noise, but polymer fundamentals are firmly up — PE tracking $0.15/lb, PP heading for its fourth consecutive monthly increase, PVC navigating Formosa force majeure, ABS staring at up to $0.27/lb in proposed increases, and PET dealing with a tight MEG market heading into beverage season.

What you'll hear this episode:
→ The plastic processor deal autopsy story — and what it revealed about information asymmetry
→ Why "wrong input costs" is a sales problem, not just a procurement problem
→ Three things companies with strong cost position discipline do differently
→ The full April 17 market brief across eight commodity grades
→ How to think about crude volatility when polymer fundamentals don't follow

ResinSmart is the buyer-side resin procurement intelligence platform powered by RTi — built on 5B+ lbs of verified buyer-seller transaction data. To see how your current cost position compares to the real market, visit resinsmart.ai.

This week's Resin Market Moves covers the defining market dynamic of April 2026: every major resin category is moving higher at the same time, all driven by the same upstream cost stack. PE, PP, ABS, PS, PC, PVC, PET, PA6, and PA66 are all under upward pricing pressure — and the window to influence Q2 outcomes is narrowing fast.

Michael Workman, CMO of ResinSmart, walks through what's actually driving April nominations across the full resin portfolio, explains why the mid-week crude oil pullback tied to the US-Iran ceasefire doesn't change the structural setup, and lays out the three things that consistently separate buyers who protect margins in this kind of environment from those who don't.

He also draws on Joel Petersen's framework for conducting effective negotiations — and explains why the resin supplier call you're about to have is won or lost before you pick up the phone.

If your benchmark is still a published index, this episode is for you.

Topics covered: 

PE nominations up to $0.30/lb for April with $0.20/lb already on the table for May 

— PP PGP feedstock dynamics and overlapping PDH outages 
— ABS, PS, and PC moving on benzene 
— PET tracking the April PX contract to ~82.5 cents/lb 
— PVC turnaround season tightening spot supply through May 
— PA6 and PA66 cost floor under soft demand 
— What the US-Iran ceasefire means and doesn't mean for buyers 
— Preparation as the primary determinant of negotiation outcomes 
— The difference between a supplier's position and their interest 
— Why timing is information and the Q2 window is closing

ResinSmart is the buyer-side resin market intelligence platform built on 25+ years of real transaction data.

Start your 60-day free trial at resinsmart.ai.

This week's RTi Drivers report — resinsmart.ai

Start your 60-day free trial — resinsmart.ai

Connect with Michael on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-workman-04085923/.

Joel Petersen on Conducting Effective Negotiations — youtube.com/watch?v=rCmvMDrCWjs.

Read this week's PlasticsToday article — https://www.plasticstoday.com/resin-pricing/resin-price-report-feedstock-costs-just-reset-the-plastic-resin-market.

Subscribe to the Resin Market Moves newsletter — ResinSmart Newsletter Subscription.

Host: Michael Workman, Commercial Director, ResinSmart

Runtime: 4:14

Episode Summary

The April feedstock contracts settled sharply higher across the board — and producers across every major resin category are pushing price increases into Q2. In this short episode, Michael Workman gives plastic manufacturers and procurement teams a fast, buyer-side read on what's driving the market and where there's still room to negotiate. Covered: PE, PP, PVC, PS, ABS, PC, PA6, PA66, and PET — with a clear framework for which categories buyers can contest and which ones require a different tactical approach.

In This Episode

• Why benzene, butadiene, ethylene, and paraxylene all moved higher for April — and what that means for your cost base
• The demand counterweight: consumer sentiment, automotive SAAR, and construction data that buyers can use as negotiating leverage
• Category-by-category snapshot: where producers have leverage vs. where buyers do
• The one move that changes the dynamic in any supplier negotiation this month

Resources

ResinSmart - Get your Resin Benchmark today. https://resinsmart.ai/resin-price-benchmark

Contact Michael: [email protected] | (214) 984-2977

This week on Resin Market Moves, Michael Workman covers the full Q2 resin market picture from the prior week.

The headline: producers are moving beyond cost recovery and into margin expansion — layering increases across March, April, and now May in PE and PP. The Hormuz situation is real supply risk and it's providing strategic cover for moves that were coming regardless.

This episode covers PE, PP, ABS, PS, PC, Nylon 6, PA66, PVC, and PET — with a specific buyer action for each.

The two critical markets this week: ABS and PS. Benzene is above $4.00/gal. Multiple producers have April increases on the table. If you don't have a qualified alternate, you are unprotected heading into June nominations.

The opportunity market: PC. BPA is flat. China oversupply is capping the ceiling. The buyer leverage window is open right now and will not stay open.

Also covered: force majeure declared on PA66 in China, what the Invista PDH outage means for PP, and why new home sales hitting a 3.5-year low matters for your PVC contracts.

Purchase wisely.

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