Chemicals and Market Impact

Prices for housing products such as lumber and PVC appear to have hit a pause on their upward march, in part because of lower housing starts, which may be linked to the higher costs – recent estimates suggested that the lumber price moves alone had added $15,000 to the cost of building an average home this year. The overall momentum in the housing market remains strong and the recent lower housing start number could be a one-off.   We maintain our preference for the PVC players and still believe that the underlying fundamentals are less precarious than they are for other polymers. See more in Today's Daily.

Source: Bloomberg, C-MACC Analysis, May 2021