Morning Briefing - 18 June 2026

MORNING BRIEFING

CommoPlast                     Thursday, 18 June 2026

                                                                                                                             commoplast.com

MARKET MOVEMENTS

Closing prices, previous trading day. Monomers show direction only.

TODAY’S DEVELOPMENTS

POLYPROPYLENE · CHINA

Chinese PP rally loses steam as ceasefire and restarts converge

Chinese homo-PP prices reversed course this week, snapping an eight-week run that had lifted values by roughly 5.2%, as news of a US-Iran ceasefire reopening the Strait of Hormuz stripped out the geopolitical risk premium that had been propping up the market. Domestic and export values both eased, and the move was amplified on the futures side, where DCE PP2609 contracts dropped sharply, a sign of how fast speculative positioning is unwinding.

The pullback comes just as the maintenance-driven supply squeeze that fuelled the earlier rally starts to fade, with most of the affected capacity lined up to return by early July. Sellers appear to have seen this coming, with manufacturers were reluctant to chase the earlier highs given softer underlying demand, while steady import volumes have added further length to the market. With two bearish catalysts now converging at once, the path of least resistance looks tilted to the downside into July.

Read the full story:

China homo-PP pressured as capacity restarts and import influx could puncture rally

POLYETHYLENE · CHINA

China's LLDPE film market extends slide as a Middle Eastern producer slashes offers

Bearish sentiment in China's LLDPE film market deepened this week after a major Middle Eastern producer slashed offers aggressively, with deals concluded at steep discounts to earlier levels that drew selective buyers back in and reset negotiation benchmarks for competing cargoes. The move lands as the market grapples with persistent weakness, with spot prices well off their early-year peak as comfortable domestic supply and soft seasonal demand keep fundamentals under pressure.

The discounting is widely read as the producer positioning ahead of easing regional tensions and lower forward replacement costs, a view reinforced by crude's slide to multi-month lows. With rival suppliers now likely to respond to defend share, the latest deals are set to ripple through import pricing discussions across the region even as underlying consumption stays fragile.

Read the full story:

Middle Eastern LLDPE film crashes in China as deals sink into three-digit territory

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