Asia Daily PP and PE Overview 24 July 2018

CHINA 

• Firmer futures market support local spot prices, demand unchanged 
• Import mPE sees additional drop, others PE grade hold steady 

Polypropylene (PP)

Inventories at Sinopec and CNPC’s warehouses dropped 40,000 tons day-on-day to approximate 690,000 tons as on 24 July 2018. However, traders are complaining that most of the quantity has been pushed to the distribution market and therefore, the reduction in local producers’ stocks does not reflect the state of demand in the country.

“Customers in the PP sector are less active than PE and the continuous price increment is now facing stiff resistance. One thing clear is that the export market becomes less attractive at the moment,” a trader added.  

Polyethylene (PE)

Import metallocene PE (mPE) from both Thailand and Singapore sees $20/ton reduction week on week sending the price range for these origins to $1260-1290/ton CFR China, LC AS term. On the other hand, offers for most other PE grade hold relatively steady as producers claimed reduced sales pressure after healthy sales results in the previous week.

“We are not having the quantity for HDPE while production for LLDPE film has not been recovered. It is safe to say that we are free from any sales pressure at the moment. The market seems to regain some stabilization and any downward adjustment in the coming days might only be a result of the strengthening US dollar,” a Thailand producer said.