European Producers Maintain PE Prices for CIS Countries in December

Despite the December contract price for propylene in Europe being up by €32/tonne compared to November, most European polyethylene (PE) producers did not increase their December export PE prices to the CIS countries, as per ICIS-MRC’s Price report.

Negotiations over December prices of European PE to be shipped to the CIS markets began in the beginning of last week. Many negotiators said most European producers had not increased their export PE prices, despite the rise of monomer prices.

The only exception was for linear polyethylene, which increased by €30/tonne in comparison to the level in November.

The difficult situation was with high density polyethylene (HDPE) prices in November. At the beginning of Novenber, producers from Europe decreased high density polyethylene (HDPE) prices, and then in the second half of November there was another price cut.

As a result, by the end of the month, HDPE prices fell to €920-1,000/tonne, FCA (free carrier).

European producers announced December HDPE shipments in the range of €990-1,070/tonne, FCA, but, during negotiations, they had to drop prices to the level of €980-1,050/tonne, FCA.

Deals for black PE100 were discussed in the range of €1,270-1,290/tonne FCA, up €20/tonne from November.

Deals for November shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) were negotiated in the range of €1,070-1,180/tonne FCA, whereas last month’s deals were done in the range of €1,085-1,180 /tonne FCA.

European producers increased the price only for hexene and octene linear polyethylene (LDL C6 and C8). Deals for linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) were agreed in the range of €1,310 - 1,420/tonne FCA, up by €30/tonne on average from November.

MRC, a partner of ICIS, produces polymers news and pricing reports from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.