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In China, future prices on Dalian Commodity Exchange recorded a slight increase by CNY10/t ($2/t) for PP and CNY80/t ($12/t) for LLDPE. Contract number 1605 for PP and LLDPE settled at CNY6543/t ($852/t without VAT) and CNY8825/t ($1150/t without VAT) respectively.

Spot offers for homo-PP and LLDPE in domestic market climb CNY100/t ($15/t) today while other grades see little changes from last week. However, sentiment is rather quiet and the number of new offers is minimal as sellers seemingly hold back their cargoes to be more active at the beginning of the month.

A trader in Zhejiang lifted PP offers to local buyers by CNY100/t and added, “At the mean time we also concluded a small quantity of Indian homo-PP raffia at $870/t CFR China, LC 90 days to buyer. Supply in domestic market is apparently comfortable, however, limited supply from international suppliers are giving so much support now.”

In the PE market, players are still reporting healthy demand for LLDPE film cargoes, however, others grades are not as attention catching. A trader in Yuyao commented, “We find it very difficult to sell HDPE these days which we think could be due to a better availability compared to other grades. Most of our regular customers are not operating at normal rate yet and this might take couple of weeks more to resolve. We are expecting the current firming trend to sustain in the coming month with the support from limited international supply and higher upstream costs.”

In Southeast Asia, the market opens the new week on a firm notes with most suppliers announce new prices with increases.

In fact, a major Indonesian maker lifted PE prices to domestic buyers by approximate $50/t for LLDPE film and $9-12/t for HDPE grades. A buyer said, “We have initially purchased sufficient stock for the whole month of March. However, we expect further price hike in the near term with ethylene costs posted a spike late last week and tight supply from international supplier; hence we decided to replenish additional one-month worth of stock. Demand for our end product is regular at the moment.” Meanwhile, local PE prices in Malaysia, Vietnam and India are being reported at higher levels. Couple of regional and international suppliers has also announced new offers with $20-40/t higher than previous opening claiming limited allocation.

In the upstream market, ethylene costs CFR Southeast Asia have climbed a total $140/t since mid Feb to reach $1000/t last Friday. This is believed to be a result of persistent tight supply in the region as major Asian crackers are about to enter the maintenance season. Kindly visit the Plant Status section on www.commoplast.com for more info on the scheduled shutdown.         

In the PP market, players reported that a major Thailand producer has not been able to resolve a technical issue, which forced the maker to declare emergency shutdown at the PP line early this month. Meanwhile, traders are offering Indian and Saudi Arabia homo-PP cargoes at $40/t higher than last week at $920-930/t CIF Vietnam LC AS term. A Vietnamese buyer responded to the new offers saying, “Propylene costs based on FOB Korea term has been increasing in a gradual pace and we think this is not enough to support such a big leap in PP prices. We are on the sideline now as we think this trend is not sustainable and local supply should improve by the second week of March considering the number of cargoes are arriving.”

For detail Daily Prices in China and Southeast Asia market, kindly visit our website at www.commoplast.com. Please contact our representatives at commoplastinfo@gmail.com for log in assistance.