China Morning Snapshot - 08 October 2018

On the first trading day after the weeklong National Day, both futures contracts for PP and LLDPE on Dalian Commodity Exchange recorded impressive gain. Firm futures market coupled with tight availability, spot ground also sees higher price levels, especially for homo-PP cargoes. 

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

Total inventories at Sinopec and CNPC’s warehouses piled up 245,000 tons from 29 September to 860,000 tons as on 08 October 2018. 

The drastic hike in spot homo-PP prices is attributed to the persistently tight availability. Many converters found themselves in the position to make fresh replenishment given the low stock on hand. “Sales are smooth this morning. We hope to see a stronger appetite in the coming days,” a PP trader informed.

In the meantime, buyers portray greater concern for the PE market given the recent plunged in the upstream ethylene costs.