Pocket of tightness in Egypt for HDPE grades

A pocket of tightness in Egypt for HDPE grades

16-Aug-11

Amidst a significant drop in crude oil prices last week, a pocket of tightness in the Egyptian market led to a significant increase in local HDPE prices this past week as per ChemOrbis. Tight local supplies and disrupted deliveries from domestic producer pushed blow moulding prices well above levels seen in the first week of August. Injection prices shared a similar fate, moving higher week over week, but film grade was mainly unchanged. As of the end of last week, the high end of local HDPE blow moulding prices moved up by EGP300/ton week over week (US$50/ton). Overall injection grade prices rose by EGP100-200/ton (US$17-34/ton). Tight supplies of both grades were responsible for the rising prices, but blow moulding was the tighter of the two grades. Domestic producer SIDPEC confirmed switching production line from blow moulding to film grade and was not delivering blow moulding grades to the market. This was the second time in about a month that blow moulding supplies were limited in Egypt - the first time being in the second week of July, for a week long maintenance. Market players also complained about limited availability at the time, but the market environment did not encourage Egyptian players to stock up on imports since July PE prices were announced with decreases of US$30-140/ton immediately after SIDPEC had announced an US$83/ton decrease for the month. The decreasing trend did not inspire confidence in restocking. Now supplies are tight once again and converters complained about trying to secure their needs, at a time when processors are seeing good end product demand but are having difficulty to secure what we need of blow moulding supplies. Injection supplies are also dwindling, although converters were able to purchase what was needed. Distributors on the other hand said that converters were receiving their quotas but distributors were not able to take delivery of material.