Chinese players: Production disruption might limit Iranian PE availability in near-term

It might become hard to obtain quantity for Iranian PE cargoes in the near to medium term as a number of scheduled turnaround is there to limit availability, Chinese players said.

Four major shutdowns from April to July is likely to take away more than 145,000 tons of production output from the market with approximate 67 per cent is HDPE. Following table layouts the maintenance schedule at major Iranian producers. 

“Several other plants in the country are operating at lower rate due to lacking feedstocks,” an Iranian trader informed. The source added that strong demand for HDPE pipe in local market has encouraged producers here to put heavier effort to meet domestic needs instead of focusing on export.

A Chinese trader added, “It has been weeks that Iranian cargoes are not widely available in the market, including for contract business. The on-going and up-coming shutdowns might make the situation worse in the medium term. This also translated into the need to source alternative materials among Chinese buyers.”

Chinese players have not commented on the latest sanctions the USA imposed on Iran, which is regarded as the strongest sanctions in the history. However, earlier this month, sources have shown little concern over the flow of Iranian cargoes to China citing that this is not the first time Iran faces international sanctions.

Iran was the largest HDPE supplier to China until 2017, when Saudi Arabia took over the position, data from the Chinese Customs Department showed.