A spate of unplanned production outages in the NWE high density polyethylene (HDPE) triggered gains in spot prices, industry sources told Platts.
Ineos declared force majeure on HDPE supplies out of its 240,000 tpa Lavera, France due to a fire on Friday. Total Petrochemicals and LyondellBasell, last week also declared force majuere on their HDPE plants in Antwerp, the Netherlands and Plock, Poland respectively. The capacities of the plants is 510,000 m tpa and 320,000 m tpa respectively. Sources also reported limited supplies from Eastern Europe and North Africa due to production issues.
In the spot market, lack of product pushed prices up. "It is difficult to find any HDPE grade below Eur1400/mt (US$1767/mt) FD NWE," a trader said. European producer offers were higher, with one producer reporting an offer at Eur1500/mt FCA NWE for HDPE blowmolding.
Egyptian offers for injection grade were heard at Eur1550/mt FD NWE, and some European traders said they were still selling in the low Eur1400s/mt FD NWE.
Blowmolding and injection grades were assessed at Eur1420-1425/mt FD NWE, up Eur20 on the week. Film grade was assessed at Eur1390-1395/mt FD NWE, up Eur30 on the week. Despite a wide-open arbitrage, imports from the Middle East and Asia into Europe are only due to be delivered in October, meaning only European quantities will be around in September.
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