New higher priced US spot export offers rejected by traders

01-Sep-10

Several traders have roundly turned down new US spot export offers as they were deemed too high for most import markets, as per Platts. Formosa is rumoured to have offered HDPE blow molding at 55 cents/lb (US$1213/mt), LLDPE at 57 cents/lb, and HDPE film at 57 cents/lb all in railcars delivered to Houston. These offers were 4 cents/lb higher than Formosa's August loading offers and several cents/lb higher than deals heard a week ago. The higher offers were attributed to US PE producers looking for a 5 cents/lb price hike in the US domestic market. To support the increase, producers needed to increase their export prices otherwise domestic buyers would use the lower export figures to argue against the domestic price hike. Also, supply was said to be tight in the US due to a series of planned and unplanned outages, and as a result, producers were not long on spot cargoes.