Redesigned resin prices section gives Plastics News readers more information

Coverage of resin prices is critically important to Plastics News subscribers, so I'm excited to share that we are making major improvements to that section of our website.

It starts with a redesign that's much easier to navigate and includes a lot more information. For example:

• We've done away with separate pages for current and historical prices and put it all on one easy-to-read page.

• When prices change, we're putting the amount of the change right on the chart — readers no longer have to hunt for a story, or a copy of last week's chart, and do the math themselves.

• We're also adding links right on the chart to our stories that explain any changes. So in the future, if you need an explanation why we posted a big change, you'll be able to click on a link that will take you to a story explaining what happened.

As always, we're showing North American prices for a wide variety of commodity and engineering thermoplastics, recycled plastics, thermosets and high-temperature thermoplastics, all in U.S. cents per pound.

The redesigned section now also includes much more than resin prices. It also features all of our pricing news and Material Insights videos, plus Frank Esposito's monthly Polymer Points columns and Polymer Points Live editorial livestreams. We've also got FAQs about pricing and an updated column explaining how we cover pricing.

We're excited about being able to feature Polymer Points Live in the resin prices section, because that's become very popular with subscribers. That's where Frank shares insight into pricing news and trends, and talks about his outlook for the coming months. You can ask questions live or watch the half-hour recording any time.

Before we tackled this redesign, we asked for suggestions and feedback from both Frank and Hollee Keller, our editorial research coordinator. We also did research, polling and talking to readers about how they use our resin prices and how the section could improve. They had great suggestions, and we're using them all in the redesign.

And that's not all. In the near future, we're also going to add a whole new section: Western European polymer prices, for both virgin thermoplastics and post-consumer resins, reported by David Platt from our sister magazine Sustainable Plastics. That will include both current and historical prices, too.

I'm very excited about all these changes, and I look forward to your feedback.

Don Loepp is editor of Plastics News and author of the Plastics Blog. Follow him on Twitter @donloepp.

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