Mid-Eastern PP, PE announced higher to Asia and Turkey

Market players in China, Southeast Asia and Turkey reported receiving new PP and PE offers from Middle Eastern producers. Based on improving demand in Asia, combined with bullish news from upstream markets, higher prices for November were not a surprise for players.

Ahead of the new price announcements, naphtha costs had marked steep changes over last week and moved above $660/ton in Asia,  while crude futures closed last week above $80/barrel, after breaching this psychological threshold mid-week. A noticeable jump had been seen in spot propylene prices in Asia as well, which rose up to $100/ton on a weekly basis, whereas spot ethylene prices in the region also recorded an increase of $110/ton on the week.

Given these factors, came the higher offer levels for Middle Eastern PP and PE. In China, a major Middle Eastern producer raised their new prices by $30-50/ton to $1200-1210/ton for HDPE and to $1240-1250/ton for LLDPE c4 film all on CFR China basis as they claim to see better demand from that country. The seller said they almost sold out their limited quantities to China due to the demand. 

Another Middle Eastern supplier revealed their November homo-PP prices to China with increases of $10-20/ton at $1080/ton CFR China for new material, while a third producer from the region came with a much higher level at $1160/ton with the same terms, marking an increase of $30/ton over October. However, buyers did not show much interest to the latter producer’s price as it remains at the top end of the overall import level.

The Southeast Asian market also witnessed higher PP offers from the Middle East, with a regional producer approaching the market with increases of $20-30/ton. The producer, who is currently offering homo-PP at $1100-1120/ton CIF Southeast Asia is reported to achieve smooth sales in the region.   

Middle Eastern producers have reported raising their offers to Turkey as well. Accordingly, a major Middle Eastern supplier came with their November prices at $1360/ton for LLDPE and at $1300-1330/ton for HDPE film, thereby returning back to their initial October levels. The new offer levels indicate increases of $120-150/ton for LLDPE and $30/ton for HDPE compared to the most recent offer levels reported in October.

As for PP, a trader in Turkey reported receiving new offers for raffia and fibre grade from the same Middle Eastern major, who initially announced higher prices to Turkey at the beginning of October and then reduced their offers to as low as $1110/ton for raffia and $1130/ton for fibre grade in the middle of the month. The trader received new offers for raffia grade at $1190/ton and fibre grade at $1220/ton CPT Gaziantep, Turkey, subject to 6.5% duty, cash, which represent increases of $40-90/ton over October. Meanwhile, a buyer reported that they were offered raffia from the same producer at $1170/ton, which is up $70/ton from an offer they received two weeks earlier. Players also reported higher prices from another Middle Eastern supplier, who raised their raffia offers to $1150/ton CFR Turkey this week, after seeing good demand at $1110-1140/ton.