Traders lifted PE offers to Vietnam ahead of official price announcement

Couple of international traders have decided to implement $10-20/ton increases on import PE offers to Vietnam on the first trading day of the week though market is generally still waiting for official prices announcement from major producers.

A trader opens fresh price list at $1150/ton for Kuwait origin HDPE film and $1160-1170/ton for LLDPE film, based on CIF Vietnam, LC AS term said, “Buyers are not responding to our latest offers. Many are still adopting wait and see stance as the recent drop in ethylene costs dampened market confidence very badly. We are monitoring further development before deciding on the next step.”

Couple of other buyers reported receiving offers for Saudi Arabia’s PE at similar hike levels, reaching $1130/ton for HDPE film and $1150/ton for LLDPE film, CIF Vietnam term. However, this offer is not very popular is southern area and a northern buyer commented, “We are still on the side-line as it seems PE market does not have any strong support to increase at the moment. We plan to make some replenishment if our regular suppliers offer some discount this month, as we believed that market might improve be second half of the year.”

International producers are discussing about new offers for June delivery, though no concrete sell idea levels reported, most are looking at softer levels from May as an effect of the Ramadan warehouse pressure and also softer upstream ethylene costs. Therefore, traders might gain little support to increase prices at the moment.

Import PE offers to Vietnam at the moment are in the range $1130-1150/ton for HDPE film, $1150-1170/ton for LLDPE film, $1270-1290/ton for LDPE film, all based on CIF Vietnam, LC AS term.