May 4, 2021
PAGEV president Yavuz Eroglu has urged manufacturers to stop purchasing raw materials and opt for recycled content where possible, in order to avoid price inflation
A boycott by manufacturers of virgin polymers has led to a 15 per cent price drop in the domestic market, said the president of Turkey’s plastics industry association PAGEV.
“We started the boycott in the second half of March and prices declined by about 15 per cent shortly afterwards,” confirmed Eroğlu. “Considering that Turkey uses some 600,000 tonnes of raw material per month, the 15 per cent average reduction means a saving of $180 million.”
Saying that plastics manufacturers would continue to resist astronomical price increases pushed by the suspiciously synchronised shutdowns of petrochemical companies, Eroğlu continued: “Turkey is one of the largest polymer importers globally and Turkish plastics manufacturers will continue to hold out until June, when new petrochemical facilities will come online in China, which is the world’s largest plastics raw material importer, and there will be an abundance of feedstock that will further drive prices down.