> "Refine" was used loosely, but the bulk of the plastics market are still relatively simple products that don't necessarily require extremely high technology to produce. It's still a cutthroat commodities business, but producing a little plastic has the potential to add a lot of dollars.
Injection molding and most other plastics manufacturing methods are much more sensitive processes than combustion which means that the commodity is much less fungible and much more logistics sensitive than fossil fuels. It's pretty common for a manufacturer to pay 2-10x market price for plastic pellets because of repeatability. Few would risk the repercussions to buy unrefined crude from Iran at a discount and there's certainly no one who;'s going to do it at $200 a barrel.
Injection molding and most other plastics manufacturing methods are much more sensitive processes than combustion which means that the commodity is much less fungible and much more logistics sensitive than fossil fuels. It's pretty common for a manufacturer to pay 2-10x market price for plastic pellets because of repeatability. Few would risk the repercussions to buy unrefined crude from Iran at a discount and there's certainly no one who;'s going to do it at $200 a barrel.