Lower Asian PP,PE offers push Latin American producers to mull price decreases

24-May-11

Lower resin offers from Asia to Latin America could push producers to reduce polyethylene and polypropylene offers for June, as per Platts. A decrease in polyethylene offers next month will help improve demand and better compete with the international market. In early May, Braskem increased polyethylene offers to Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia by US$100/mt and polypropylene by US$150/mt. The hikes put Brazilian PE offers at US$1800/mt CFR for HDPE injection, blowmolding and film, US$1800/mt CFR for LLDPE butane, US$1900/mt CFR for hexane, while LDPE offers were heard at US$2250/mt CFR. In sharp contrast, Asian PE offers to Latin America were heard at US$1640/mt CFR for HDPE blowmolding and US$1850/mt CFR for LDPE film. Markets in Colombia, Paraguay, Brazil have been dampened by the lower offers from Asia, causing domestic offers to fall. Offers from South Korea to Latin America were heard at US$1870/mt CFR for homo raffia, US$1870/mt CFR for homo injection. By contrast, Brazilian offers to Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia during May were heard at US$2050/mt CFR for homo raffia, US$2080/mt CFR for injection and film and at US$2150/mt CFR for co-polymer. Colombian offers to Central America, meanwhile, were around $2240/mt CIP for homo raffia, US$2270/mt CIP for homo film and at US$2320/mt CIP for co-polymer impact, levels that made them almost impossible to compete against Asian imports.