Southeast Asia makers lifted LDPE film prices to Vietnam

Major Southeast Asian producers have announced new LDPE film prices to Vietnam with increases due to limited supply and strong upstream costs. Indeed, latest offers indicated some $10-25/ton higher than last week, reaching $1205-1240/ton CIF Vietnam, LC AS term.

A buyer received Thailand LDPE offers at $25/ton hike commented, “We see LDPE film supply is not as tight as expected since we are able to source sufficient quantity from Middle Eastern suppliers. We found Southeast Asian origin cargoes are not very attractive. We might incur loses as local market has yet to inherit any support.”

Meanwhile, suppliers are very firm on their prices claiming lack of sales pressure given the recent shutdown within the Asia region. A Malaysian producer informed, “We lifted our offers by $10-20/ton as we think LDPE supply might tighten in the near term amid plant overhaul and pick up in demand. Sales have been disappointed, yet outlook is bullish.”

In the plant status news, Thailand’s PTT is planning to take its 300,000 tons/year LDPE plant off-stream for maintenance on 19 September. The unit is expected to remain offline till 12 October. In South Korea, LG Chem Corporation might shut its 170,000 tons/year LDPE unit on 10 Oct – 20 Oct for maintenance.

In China, two major LDPE plants are offline at the moment including Lanzhou Petrochemical Company’s 200,000 tons/year unit and Sinopec Maoming’s 250,000 tons/year unit. Sources reported that Sinopec Maoming might be able to restart on the 8 September while Lanzhou Petrochemical will remain offline till later this month.