China Morning Snapshot – 19 April 2018

Dalian Commodity Exchange traded range bound throughout the morning session and enters the break time with an increase of CNY25/ton ($4/ton) for LLDPE contract and CNY10/ton ($2/ton) for PP. Both contracts reached CNY9250/ton ($1261/ton without VAT) and CNY8995/ton ($1226/ton without VAT) respectively.   

Sentiment in the domestic market is deteriorating though spot offers for both PP and PE remain largely unchanged from the previous trading day. Homo-PP traded in Eastern China in the range CNY8800-8950/ton ($‎1200-1220/ton without VAT) while LLDPE film in Northern China is at CNY‎‎9400-9600/ton ($‎1281-1309/ton without VAT), all based on EXW China, cash equivalent.

Compared to the previous session, total PP and PE inventories at Sinopec and CNPC warehouses fell another 15,000 tons to approximate 810,000 tons as of 19 April 2018. Traders are complaining about the difficulties facing in attracting buying interest while pointing to the fact that market could hold its current position was due to the heavy maintenance shutdown season. “Our customers are not interested in placing bids, and therefore, we arrange some site visit instead of pushing for sales,” a source said.