In related industry news, Vietnam’s Long Son Petrochemical (LSP) is set to welcome a shipment of 50,000 tons of naphtha, which would allow the producer to kickstart the trial production at the cracker
Minor increases in local prices were reported, however, sources continued to question the sustainability of any potential rebound citing the ‘targeted and moderate’ impact governmental infrastructure projects have on the overall economy.
The ethylene-naphtha spread is currently calculated at $187-207/ton – way below the typical spread of $300-350/ton, meaning cracking operators are operating at squeezed margins.
A number of transactions had been concluded, but buyers are obviously slowing down in responding to the perceived heightening price risks – an indication that there might not be enough support for any strong rebound.
For the first time since May 2020, import homo-PP offers fell below the $850/ton threshold in China as the market falls under the pressure of a confluence of factors.
Thanks to the continued firming Dalian Commodity Exchange, the domestic PP and PE market in China showed signs of improvement on the first trading day of the week.
After two consecutive sessions of stabilising futures contracts on the Dalian Commodity Exchange, a couple of Chinese suppliers decided to introduce a firmer stance on export homo-PP offers.
In an interesting development, Malaysian homo-PP was concluded at below the $900/ton threshold in China, the first time such prices showed up in a couple of years.
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