Initial PE offers for Nov revealed higher from Mid-East

28-Oct-15

Players in Southeast Asia and Turkey started to receive PE offers from Middle Eastern suppliers this week for November, as reported on Chemorbis.com. The new offer levels indicate a monthly increase in both regions with suppliers pointing to their tight availability as the primary reason for their decision to increase prices. Two Middle Eastern producers started to offer PE to Southeast Asia with increases ranging from US$40/ton to US$60/ton. “Not only are Middle Eastern producers having supply limitations, but also regional producers in Southeast Asia,” argued a source from one of the producers. He also blamed rising ethylene prices in Asia for the increase. Whether these initial hike requests from the Middle East will find acceptance or not in the market is a question mark for now. This is due to the fact that buyers generally report being covered for at least a month. The source from the Middle Eastern producer also acknowledged that demand is not promising as buyers have already built stocks and demand for many applications remains slow. Likewise in Turkey, two major PE suppliers from the Middle East approached the market with price hike intentions of $20-30/ton on the month. Both informed their customers about their limited quotas with one of them arguing that they could already conclude some deals. PE demand in the Turkish market is relatively better than that of PP, many players concur. These hike attempts were expected among buyers last week although they generally opine that any upward momentum is not justified in the obscure atmosphere of the pre and post-election period as well as the upcoming winter and the end of the season for many applications. Defying the upward momentum in the Southeast Asian and Turkish markets, China continues to indicate a soft atmosphere with players reporting that the post-holiday gains of the market have already been erased, according to ChemOrbis.