New market analysis finds rising inventories, falling crude oil prices and weakening demand are undermining producer price increase efforts across major resin categories.
FORT WORTH, Texas, June 27, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Resin buyers are entering one of the strongest negotiating environments seen in years, according to a new market analysis from ResinSmart, a resin procurement intelligence and advisory platform powered by RTi Global. Drawing on market data and buyer-side transaction insights, the analysis found that record inventory growth, declining feedstock costs and softening demand are weakening the case for producer price increases across commodity resins.
"Market conditions are increasingly working in buyers' favor," said Michael Workman, executive director of ResinSmart. "While producers continue to face legitimate cost pressures, rising inventories, softer demand and easing feedstock costs are making it more difficult to justify broad-based price increases. Buyers who understand the underlying market dynamics and negotiate from the data are entering the second half of the year from a position of strength."
Preliminary May industry data showed polyethylene inventories surged by approximately 791 million pounds in a single month, one of the largest monthly inventory builds recorded in more than a decade, while domestic demand declined and export activity softened. Polyethylene inventories climbed to nearly 47 days of supply in May as production continued to outpace consumption despite proposed June price increases.
Additional market indicators point to similar supply-demand imbalances across other major resin categories. Polypropylene inventories continued to grow as polymer-grade propylene values softened, reducing feedstock cost pressure. PVC inventories increased amid weakening housing activity, with U.S. housing starts falling to multi-year lows. Across engineering resins, market conditions remain mixed, though cost and supply fundamentals generally provide less support for price increases than producers have seen in recent months.
Recent declines in energy markets are adding further pressure to producer pricing initiatives. WTI crude oil prices fell more than 9 percent during the week, reducing a key cost justification frequently cited across petroleum-based resin categories.
While current conditions favor buyers, ResinSmart notes several factors that could influence market dynamics later this year, including planned production outages, Gulf Coast hurricane season and potential supply tightening in select engineering resin markets. Buyers are encouraged to leverage current market conditions while remaining alert to potential supply-side risks heading into the third quarter.
About ResinSmart
ResinSmart is a resin procurement intelligence and advisory platform powered by RTi Global, serving plastics processors and manufacturers since 1998. The RESIN8™ benchmarking engine is built on more than 3 billion pounds of real buyer-side transaction data, providing SKU-level price benchmarks, market intelligence and negotiation guidance independent of producer-side indexes.
For more information, visit resinsmart.ai.
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SOURCE ResinSmart
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