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A number of Chinese players are reporting of severe delay in shipment for PP and PE parcel originated from India. Some of the cargoes have missed initial schedule by more than two months and might take longer to arrive, sources said.

As reported earlier, an explosion occurred at IOCL’s plant on 22 January that forced the company to shutdown its newly constructed cracker, which designated capacity at 800,000 tons/year of ethylene, 600,000 tons/year of propylene, alongside with a swing HDPE/LLDPE unit that produces 350,000 tons/year. It might take the company two weeks to restart the units.

The abrupt shutdown arouses concern over the supply condition in local India and producers in the country are planning to put more attention to domestic buyers. “And therefore, we have to postpone a number of PP shipment to China to further date,” a producer said.

A Chinese buyer added, “We have 700 tons of Indian HDPE yarn purchased in November and due to arrive this month and yet, we have not receive any vessel booking confirmation. As a result, we are seeking for alternative source of material to replace the supply gap.”

Similar situation is observed in Vietnam, in which a number of cargoes purchased during the period August – November 2017, have not arrived in accordance. “This situation might deprived the already tight market even further and as a result, we might keep expectation for additional price increases in the near term,” a Vietnamese buyer said.