This week, I’m reminded that running a monomers business is a bit like holiday baking: timing matters, ingredients matter, and with a little care (and maybe an extra dash of creativity) everything comes out better than expected. As companies across the industry shift into “holiday hibernation mode,” we’re seeing the usual seasonal patterns—year-end inventory tightening, conservative PO behavior, and a little collective hope that the coatings market will roll into January feeling bright-eyed and refreshed.
The broader economic backdrop hasn’t helped. Housing affordability remains a major drag, with new home starts down and buyers sidelined—cooling the construction pipeline and, in turn, architectural coatings demand. That softness ripples straight through to monomers, contributing to quieter inbound activity than any of us would prefer. Add in the annual ritual of corporate end-of-year destocking, and we have a market that’s temporarily sleepier than a cat under a Christmas tree.
On the geopolitical front, the recent summit in Busan between Presidents Trump and Xi yielded an unexpected but positive development: China agreed to relax export restrictions on rare earth minerals and magnets, and the U.S. responded by reducing the “synthetic opioid tariff” from 20% to 10%. Any easing of strategic supply-chain friction is good news—and signals a slightly friendlier landscape for import-heavy sectors like ours heading into 2026.
With that said, here’s your friendly, highly practical reminder: now is the time to be ordering for January and February. Chinese New Year falls on February 17, 2026, and as always, the shutdowns around it will disrupt Asia production and logistics for several weeks. Q1 demand often rebounds faster than customers expect, and those who secure supply early avoid the classic holiday-hangover scramble. If you’d like to talk through needs, timing, or specific monomer options, please reach out to our team at monomers@teckrez.com — we’re here, we’re watching the indicators, and we’re ready to help you start 2026 on the front foot.
By Olivia Jobes