China market steady in post holiday, limited trading activities

As most Chinese players returned from the Dragon Boat Festival celebrated during the first two days of the week, domestic ground see little improvement in term of trading activities. The number of deal observed on the first trading day is rather limited and many buyers prefer to stay on the sideline with comfortable inventories on hand.

A trader reported to have sold 100 tons of homo-PP to local buyers said, “We maintain our prices unchanged compared to last week. Most of our customers are not active yet; therefore it is hard to gauge the likely market direction in the coming days. However, it normally the start of off-peak season after the Dragon Boat Festival.”

Other players in Northern area reported receiving various discount schemes for LLDPE film from a major producer. Price cut ranging from CNY100 ($14/ton) to CNY150/ton ($22/ton) for quantity 200 and 300 tons above respectively. A trader purchased the cargoes informed, “Our principal supplier is trying to deplete some cargoes as stock piled up during the holiday. Futures market is not very good and we just hope that prices hold stable for the remaining of the week.”

It is still unclear on the possible trend in domestic China market in the near term since market participants are mostly adopting wait and see stance. At the moment, local prices based on EXW China, cash term are reported at:

Homo-PP: CNY‎7800-8350/ton or $975-1043/ton without VAT
LLDPE film: CNY‎9100-9500/ton or $1137-1187/ton without VAT
HDPE film: CNY‎9600-9900/ton or $1200-1237/ton without VAT
LDPE film: CNY‎9700-10500/ton or $1212-1312/ton without VAT