Plastic Resin Consulting Solutions

In order to know how well your organization buys plastic resins and additives it is vital to know how well it compares to other plastics processors. Mathelin Bay can help you assess where your company stands in relation to others and where there are opportunities for improving your total plastics supply chain costs. The emphasis is always on lowering total cost rather than just lowering plastics prices because lower cost resin is no bargain if it causes higher scrap rates, unacceptably lower finished part physical properties or causes more product to be returned.

You work hard to make sure your organization has a good idea of what its actual plastics resins and additives costs are, but when it comes to knowing your suppliers’ costs you can’t always know with a high level of confidence what their costs are and whether your company is dealing with low cost or high cost suppliers. Mathelin Bay can help you by deconstructing your suppliers’ costs and highlighting their cost positions relative to other suppliers of the same or similar plastic resins or performance additives. With this information in hand you can identify suppliers that present potential risks to achieving long-term competitive pricing for your organization because they are not vertically integrated into key raw materials, or companies that are potential supply risks to your company because their own supply chains are not robust enough to withstand a hurricane or one of their key suppliers exiting a raw materials market.

When your organization decides it is time for an annual or periodic bid for its plastics resins and additives volume Mathelin Bay can help support or guide the negotiations process however it best fits your company’s culture—we can handle negotiations directly on your company’s behalf, sit next to your plastics supply chain team during negotiations, or work completely behind the scenes with your people. We can help identify and bring new potential suppliers into the process, recommend alternative resins or performance additives and point out potential pitfalls and opportunities to your company from dealing with particular suppliers.

In order to remain price competitive, to meet customer requirements for higher recycled content, or to comply with State or other recycled content rules it is important that your company is fully aware of current and anticipated regulations in the area of Green Solutions. Mathelin Bay can assist your organization in walking through the sometimes confusing and complicated paths to higher recycled content, including for materials that need to be formally approved such as for food contact. When it comes to recycled plastic resins, not all suppliers are the same and, as is the case with virgin resins, lower price doesn’t always equate to the lowest cost, so identifying and choosing the right supplier can be critical to the performance of your products and their compliance with customer and regulatory requirements.

Unlike many other commodities such as metals and energy, the financial markets for plastics resin prices are not as well-developed or as liquid. It is often not easy to even hedge plastic resin prices for a number of commodity resins. With Mathelin Bay’s assistance we can help introduce your organization’s supply chain or financial people to strategies for directly or indirectly hedging some of your company’s future resin requirements. If your organization is looking for an advantage against your competitors there are also strategies for offering your customers fixed price contracts that can have the added benefit of enhancing your company’s margins at the same time.

Mathelin Bay also assists plastics processors with in-person or Webinar training directed toward improving the performance of your organization’s plastics supply chain, as well as assisting your salesforce in what is the sometimes very difficult task of explaining and passing along plastics resin price increases to your customers. In fact, it is possible to put together a seminar or a training session on just about any area of interest—supply chain, technical, regulatory, financial, merger and acquisition advice or due diligence, etc.—where your team may require expert assistance.