Chinese Market Players: Lacklustre Demand To Put A Cap On Potential Rise For PE Prices
- Local and import PE offers shifted in tandem, deals remained scarce
- Healthy demand observed for HDPE Pipe grades
- Market players shared different outlook for pricing
A number of Chinese market players voiced out to SSESSMENTS.COM that lacklustre demand from downstream markets will put a cap on potential rise for PE prices. On the week starting May 18, local and import offers for PE across different grades were mostly on an upward trend. In the local market, offers for HDPE Film, LDPE Film, and LLDPE Film C4 from one of the local traders increased between CNY50-100/ton ($7-14/ton). From another trader, the latest offers for HDPE Yarn and LDPE Film edged higher by CNY200/ton ($28/ton) and between CNY50-200/ton ($7-28/ton), respectively. All compared to Tuesday’s level (May 19). Likewise, local offers for LLDPE Film C4 from a coal-based polyolefins producer in the country went up by CNY50/ton ($7/ton) on a weekly comparison. For localized cargoes, HDPE Film of the Middle East and Malaysia origin, Russian HDPE Blow Moulding as well as Malaysian LLDPE Film C4 via a trader remain stable from last week. Additionally, market players pointed out that the uptrend in local prices was prominently caused by firmer crude oil and futures prices.
In the import market, July shipment offers for HDPE Film, LLDPE Film C4, and mLLDPE C6 from a Thai PE producer were adjusted up by $10/ton. At the moment, the Thai producer has no allocation for LDPE Film cargoes. For Saudi origin cargoes, the offers for HDPE Film and LDPE Film were mostly stable, but for LLDPE Film C4, the offers dipped by $10/ton. All compared to last week’s levels, SSESSMENTS.COM noted. From South Korea, the offers for HDPE Pipe (PE 100) cargoes are available between $850-860/ton on LC at sight, CIF China Main Port basis. Since the volume from the supplier is limited, the prices for South Korean cargoes were firm and deals were concluded at the initial offer level. To date, some traders managed to sell HDPE Yarn cargoes of Uzbekistan origin at $770/ton on LC at sight, CIF China Main Port basis.
In general, China’s PE market is rather quiet this week; the number of inquiries and transactions were limited. A trader stated that buying sentiment was quite good at the beginning of the week, however, it started to get weaker when local producers and traders raised their offers on Tuesday, citing that converters showed resistance towards the high-end level of the price range. Recently, healthy demand is seen for HDPE Pipe, which is supported by infrastructure projects. Due to this, a South Korean producer will focus on producing HDPE Pipe during June. On the supply side, the inventory of the two leading Chinese polyolefins producers recorded at 760,000 tons as of Thursday morning, May 21. As SSESSMENTS.COM noted, the inventory was significantly decreased by 145,000 tons compared to Monday’s level, May 18.
Looking ahead, some Chinese market players believe that PE prices will remain stable or even move higher considering the firm ethylene and futures market prices. However, some others opined that converters’ resistance toward higher prices, which led to slow demand for PE resins will likely hinder local prices from moving higher. In conclusion, local PE prices are rather hard to increase but the room for the decrease is limited either. Demand-wise, SSESSMENTS.COM was told that it would remain stagnant onward.
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