PE prices rollover in US for May, price changes pushed to June

08-Jun-11

After several negotiations, May's US domestic polyethylene prices were rolled over from April, with buyers planning to push for a decrease in June, as per Platts. Since the May price increase has been pushed to June and previously announced June price increases were moved out to July. Producers continued to talk of the relatively high spot ethylene price and tight US market as support for a PE price increase. Spot ethylene price has come down slightly over the last month. From last Tuesday, the price has decreased a couple cents/lb to trade for July at 64 cents/lb. LyondellBasell's Morris shutdown is expected to impact supplies to the market. The 450,000 tpa plant was shut on May 29 after being struck by lightning. The company then declared force majeure on deliveries from Morris and had yet to announce a restart date. Looking for a decrease, buyers pointed to falling international markets. Additionally, lot of material is finding its way into South America from China. It is difficult to find any buyers now as expectations are for lower prices going forward and no one wanted to be caught with high priced inventory.