China Morning Snapshot - 25 September 2018

Dalian Commodity Exchange resumes trading after the long weekend on a firm note. Both contracts for PP and LLDPE recorded some small increases by the time market enter the break-time.

Details on the spot and futures prices are shown in the following table:

Total inventories at Sinopec and CNPC’s warehouses piled up 105,000 tons throughout the three off days to 725,000 tons as on 25 September 2018. 

Customers come back from the Mid-Autumn Festival with a more cautious stance. Many prefer to wait and see on the sideline instead of jumping directly to new deals. Some resistance persists on the upper end of the overall price range, “However, we still manage to conclude some quantity for both PP and PE at the lower end of the price range,” a trader reported.

Chinese traders hold still to the belief that customers would have to make additional purchases before the weekend, and therefore, few have the intention to cut prices. “Besides, local availability remains tight. Inventories pressure is not immense at the time being,” another market source added.