Frank Esposito

In this week's Numbers Matter Shorts, Bill Wood explores separating the meaningful economic signals from an increasingly noisy flow of data. Wood examines the Federal Reserve's interest in using a trimmed mean inflation measure that filters out short-term price swings like gas prices, and discusses broader efforts to reduce noise in financial markets which include less corporate reporting and economic analysis. Also, he looks at artificial intelligence's double-edged role, highlighting a potential to uncover valuable insights while also creating new forms of misinformation and confusion.

Techmer PM will permanently close the former Colors for Plastics plant in Elk Grove Village, Ill., less than two years after acquiring the color concentrates and additives manufacturer.

North American polypropylene prices took another tumble in June, while polystyrene prices moved up once again.

In this week’s Material Insights, senior reporter Frank Esposito discusses the latest movement in commodity resin markets, including polypropylene giving back recent gains while polystyrene continues its upward pricing trend driven by feedstock costs.

North American polyethylene prices retreated in June as swelling inventories and weaker demand ended the market's historic spring rally.

Mitsubishi Chemical's $20.3 million expansion in Pennsylvania reflects the company's strategy to strengthen North American production of specialty engineering plastics through a new extrusion Center of Excellence.

Mergers and acquisitions deals in the plastics industry were climbing high early in 2026, but slowed as the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran. Industry watchers expect to see recovery in the second half of the year.

The M&A market was buoyed by companies such as Forvia trimming operations and by interest for companies to pick up units to balance their market share or improve a geographic footprint.

In this week’s Material Insights, senior reporter Frank Esposito explains why supply-and-demand fundamentals have regained control — and why another price decrease in July is increasingly possible.

Two German financial firms — Mutares and Aequita — will take over the bulk of Sabic's plastics businesses in a deal announced in the first half of 2026.