Mid-Eastern producers cut July PE prices in Egypt, raise Aug outlook

In Egypt, Middle Eastern producers had approached the PE market at the start of July with lower prices as compared to June offer levels, as per ChemOrbis. As the month of July proceeded, the producers issued further decreases unlike the pattern followed in other global markets including Turkey and China. Despite the recent price cuts, Middle Eastern producers are already pronouncing firmer price ideas for August in the Egyptian market. A major Saudi Arabian producer offered US$70-120/ton decreases to Egypt for initial July offers before conceding to further decreases. The supplier first down revised prices by US$30/ton for HDPE injection, HDPE film and LLDPE film followed by further decreases of US$30-80/ton on LDPE film, LLDPE film, HDPE film, injection and blow moulding offers as of last week. Meanwhile, a Qatari producer approached the market with US$100/ton decreases for LDPE film and US$60/ton decreases for LLDPE film. On top these decreases, the seller was also willing to offer US$30-50/ton extra discounts for purchases of around 200 tons. However, a week after the announcement, the producer reported selling out LLDPE film quotas accompanied by very limited LDPE film availability and therefore, raising their LDPE film offers by US$40-60/ton and a US$20/ton higher LLDPE film sell idea. Another Middle Eastern producer had announced relatively smaller July decreases of US$10-30/ton on their LLDPE film, HDPE film and blow moulding offers before revising them down by another US$20-50/ton last week for HDPE and LLDPE film. A trader offering on behalf of the producer told ChemOrbis, “We adjusted down our prices given the weak sales performance as buyers still hesitate to make purchases beyond their urgent needs. However, given the firmer oil prices we are mulling over issuing US$50-70/ton increases on our August prices.” A plastic end product manufacturer, who concluded a deal at the lower revised prices remarked, “We have started to see some improvement on our end product demand and we believe that the market has been performing better when compared to the previous years. We are currently running our plant at full capacity and we are covered until the end of this month due to our purchases.” Looking at other global markets, regular Middle Eastern suppliers disappeared from the Turkish PE market last week as they target higher offer levels based on higher energy markets. On a week over week basis, Middle Eastern HDPE film offers rose US$10-95/ton, LDPE film offers moved up by US$180-200/ton and LLDPE film offers gained US$80/ton at the low end of the range in Turkey. Similarly, in China, most sellers reported targeting higher offer levels on their late July and August prices given the firmer upstream costs.