Three nylon 6 producers sent increase letters as Labor Day weekend approached. The feedstock most directly tied to nylon 6 pricing moved in the opposite direction the same week.
In this episode of Resin Market Moves, Michael Workman starts there — then works through every major resin market with a single question in mind: before you respond to anything in your inbox this week, what do you actually need to know?
The cleaner calls first — polypropylene, polyethylene, PET, and PVC — where buyer leverage is intact and the action is clear. Then the benzene-linked materials — polystyrene, ABS, polycarbonate, and nylon 6/6 — where the crude move and September benzene settlement gave producers fresher arguments than they had before Labor Day. And finally nylon 6, where three producers coordinated simultaneously and only one piece of data holds up under scrutiny.
Every major resin. Buyer-side only. The action priorities for the week.
Episode Notes:
Crude oil surged nearly 10% on the week on direct US-Iran military escalation and Strait of Hormuz disruption concerns, closing above $91 per barrel. That move hit benzene and butadiene heading into final September contract settlements — giving producers in five resin families fresher cost arguments than they had entering the holiday weekend.
The central call of the episode: AdvanSix, BASF, and NYCOA all announced September nylon 6 increases citing upstream cost pressure — in the same week caprolactam dropped sharply in spot markets. Michael breaks down why those two facts don't reconcile on cost grounds, and what buyers should put in front of their supplier before responding to anything in their inbox.
Chapter Markers:
[
00:00] The number nylon 6 producers don't want you to have — cold open, caprolactam contradiction teased
[
01:30] The setup — crude above $91, Strait of Hormuz, the week's feedstock context, the two-market split
[
04:00] The cleaner calls — polypropylene, polyethylene, PET, PVC: where leverage is intact and the action is clear
[
14:00] The more specific — polystyrene, ABS, polycarbonate, nylon 6/6: where the crude move changed the context
[
24:00] The payoff — nylon 6: the caprolactam data and what to do before September closes
[
29:00] What to do before Friday — action priorities by urgency
Key Line Per Resin — As Recorded:
- Polypropylene: "If you accept any September polypropylene increase, you are leaving money on the table."
- Polyethylene: "One month after a draw of a period of builds isn't going to restructure a market that's fairly well supplied."
- PET: "If you've been waiting for peak season to pass to negotiate open volume, that moment is now."
- PVC: "One of those is a talking point, one of them is a trend. Make sure your supplier knows which is which."
- Polystyrene: "Don't let benzene direction become your supplier's argument for what October's gonna do."
- ABS: "The ceiling is real — hold your position."
- Polycarbonate: "A headline is not a market. It's one company's pricing ambition."
- Nylon 6/6: "The settled contracts are the relevant benchmark here, not the most recent crude oil spike."
- Nylon 6: "It's not a cost argument. These are margin recovery arguments, rather than cost pass-through."
Show Notes:
ResinSmart is tracking this week's developments across polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, ABS, polycarbonate, PVC, nylon 6/6, nylon 6, and PET. All market data sourced from RTi market intelligence and approved sources.
Key themes this episode: the nylon 6 caprolactam contradiction; the polyethylene inventory revision and why it doesn't change the structural supply picture; why polypropylene remains the cleanest buyer-leverage position in the market; the PVC construction spending story; and how US-Iran military escalation sent crude oil nearly 10% higher in a single week — hitting benzene-linked and commodity resins in completely different ways.
For the full market summary table, ResinSmart benchmark context, or to see how your September pricing compares to what the market actually cleared: resinsmart.ai |
mworkman@resinsmart.ai | 214-984-2977
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