Inflation

[Russ Bellinis]

I think the problem for plastic manufacturing is oil. Plastic is made from oil. When that Evergreen ship stopped traffic in the Suez Canal, oil tankers were stuck waiting for it to clear. Prices suddenly sky rocketed. Every time a refinery has a problem, oil prices go up. When they had a glut of oil a couple of months ago, oil stocks crashed, and prices at the pump dropped, but somewhere along the line prices remained high for stuff made of plastic. About the only place where product prices follow the price of oil is at gas pumps and perhaps lube oil. Every time something that is made out of oil has a price rise, they blame the cost of oil, but when oil prices drop, the price of plastic products does not follow!