Bullish outlook for January surfaces in Italy’s polymer markets

15-Dec-10

Italy’s polymer markets have started to witness pre-buying activities particularly for PP, PE and PS ahead of the approaching Christmas holidays, as per Chemorbis. As upstream markets strengthen, expectations of another round of increases in January are becoming more widespread amongst Italian players. Many buyers are looking to buy additional volumes in the spot market albeit in small amounts due to the seasonally low end-product demand. Some PE sellers reported this week that they almost sold out for December due to restricted allocations. Though converters are not seeing healthy demand for end products and they find current local prices high, several buyers are planning to make new purchases to avoid paying further increases when they come back to their desks after the holidays. Increases of €20-30/ton have been the most common outcome on spot done deals for PP and PE so far while larger increases of €20-45/ton have passed on PS transactions in Italy. Spot PVC sellers, on the other hand, have had to concede to rollovers or only small increases of €10/ton this month amidst poor seasonal demand from end-product customers.