Coronavirus and polymers - a week in transition?

The world is different, now. The plastics industry was bright-eyed and optimistic heading in to the new decade. The protracted trade war between the US and China was pointed towards resolution, concerns over the fallout of Brexit had abated and demand expectations improved following a lack-lustre 2019. Such optimism was quickly withdrawn, however, as the coronavirus outbreak began to grip global economies, first in China and now world-wide. Welcome to our weekly update on how the coronavirus is impacting polymer demand. In each of these updates we’ll seek to provide you with • commentary about important developments surrounding coronavirus broadly • how we’re perceiving demand in different markets and regions • and how that is reflected in a newly developed coronavirus demand model