China Morning Snapshot: 18 January 2018

May delivery contracts for both PP and PE poses fluctuating trend and turned softer toward end of the morning session. LLDPE futures reduced CNY10/ton ($2/ton) to CNY9845/ton ($1307/ton without VAT) while PP contract added CNY20/ton ($3/ton), reaching CNY9424/ton ($1251/ton without VAT).

Eastern China market poses CNY50/ton ($8/ton) softer compared to yesterday, with spot homo-PP stands in the range CNY‎‎9350-9400/ton ($‎1241-1248/ton without VAT), EXW China, cash equivalent.

Meanwhile, LLDPE film offers in Northern China remained largely stable at CNY9750-9900/ton ($‎1294-1314/ton without VAT), with the same term.

Players reported that there are some deals in domestic market this morning whereby arbitrage traders mostly offered discounts in the market, and converters continuously replenishing cargoes as preparation for Chinese New Year holiday by next month. Although the sentiment these two days were slower as compared to Tuesday, players claimed to have limited supply pressure and expecting that prices might not be able to have significant reduction this month, with some emphasized that the pre-holiday purchasing activities shall continue for next week.