Senior Editor for PET, Caroline Murray, and Senior Editor for Recycling, Matt Tudball talk about the current state of the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and recycled PET (R-PET) markets and the uncertainties both face for the rest of the year. These include:

• PET feedstock situation
• High freight costs impacting availability
• Capacity growth in Asia
• Upcoming recycled content targets for R-PET
• Limited availability of food-grade R-PET pellets

SHANGHAI (ICIS)—In this podcast, markets reporter Shannen Ng discusses how northeast Asia’s methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) supply is expected to remain tight as Q3 progresses, however, poor demand expectations in the Asian import markets for the rest of this quarter remain.

• Polymeric MDI sentiment in SE Asia, India supported by tight supply
• Monomeric MDI particularly sluggish and expected to remain so
• Weak demand outlook for China’s downstream construction and automotive sectors

SINGAPORE (ICIS) -- In this podcast, Asia ethylene editor Josh Quah and analyst Aliena Huang discuss the factors impacting arbitrage flows of ethylene from the US to Asia.

• Spot arbitrage window between US and Asia closed but term arrivals for July remain healthy
• Storm Beryl, low affordability in Asia, may keep spot arbitrage trades closed into Aug
• Panama Canal traffic levels expected to return to pre-congestion levels by Oct