Plant shutdowns support local LLDPE film in China

After hitting multi years low levels during late April 2017, domestic LLDPE film prices in China is slowly regaining momentum. Chinese players informed that market is entering the traditional slow season, which hurdles cargoes off-take speed, however prices are having strong support from tightened local supply stemming for several plant shutdowns.

There are at least seven plants are taken off-stream from May to June for maintenance while several other makers are bringing up the consideration to switch to making HDPE to leverage the price gap. A market source added, “Prices could have gained more strength on the back of tight supply, however, falling ethylene costs undermined the situation. We hope that the market could persist the current condition throughout June, as demand is not there to create any significant pull.”