Initial July PP, PE offers announced in Middle East and Egypt
Players in the Middle East and Egypt report that new July offers have started to be revealed with rollovers to decreases from June, in line with market expectations. Market players had been expecting to see stable to softer prices due to slowing market activities in line with the Ramadan lull and upcoming holidays.
In Jordan, a plastic end product manufacturer reported that a major Saudi producer revealed their new July shipment PP and PE offers with rollovers for PE while the producers’ new PP offers indicate $40/ton decreases when compared to June levels.
The converter receiving the new levels from the producer said, “We think that the producer may give additional decreases on their deals as demand remains stagnant in the market due to the upcoming Eid holidays.”
In Egypt, the same Saudi producer announced their new PP and PE offers for July with rollovers from June. A trader receiving the producer’s new offers commented that the producer’s decision to maintain their offers is unreasonable given the slow market activities and the existence of lower offers in the market. The trader also added, “The producer concluded deals at lower levels last month and offers in the local market remain soft. Therefore, these prices faced resistance from buyers.”
In Saudi Arabia, two local producers have announced their new July PP and PE offers so far. Although they seemed to agree on PP trend, they preferred to apply different pricing policies on their new PE offers.
A major local producer announced its new HDPE injection and LLDPE C4 film offers with rollovers from June while they cut their new offers by SAR187/ton ($50/ton) for HDPE film and blow moulding and by SAR75/ton ($20/ton) for PP raffia and injection and PPBC injection.
Another local producer, meanwhile, unexpectedly revealed their July PE prices with SAR37-75/ton ($10-20/ton) increases while cutting their new PP offers by SAR113/ton ($30/ton) from June.