Plastics News Europe - July/August 2019 - 28

polymer prices

prices driven down by weak
demand and lower costs

n June, European standard
thermoplastics presented mixed
pricing movement. Polyethylene and polypropylene prices
remained largely unchanged
compared with May following a
rollover for the respective ethylene and propylene contract prices. Polystyrene prices, on the
other hand, registered a sharp
downturn after the June styrene
monomer reference price plummeted, thus ending a fourmonth period of rising prices.
European PET prices also saw a
significant reduction. This followed lower feedstock costs
and mirrored notations in other
world regions that had previously fallen in May.
In July, petrochemical feedstock costs fell across the board
as a result of lower naphtha
costs and several cracker plants
coming back on stream after
maintenance.
In June, L/LDPE prices remained unchanged from the previous month following a rollover
in the ethylene contract price. In
July, the ethylene reference price
fell by €75/tonne compared with
June. L/LDPE producers managed
to restrict price cuts to the €75/
tonne reduction in the cost of
feedstock.
HDPE suppliers, on the other
hand, conceded price reductions

The construction sector continued to disappoint

of between €5-10/tonne in June
as a result of competitively-priced
imports. For July, HDPE blow
moulding and injection moulding
prices fell in line with the €75/
tonne reduction in the ethylene
reference price, whereas blown
film prices fell by slightly less
than the cost reduction.
In June, PP homopolymer film
and homopolymer injection contract prices settled on a rollover
while copolymer injection moulding prices fell by €10/tonne,

prices monitor July 2018-July 2019
Source: Plastics News Europe

2.0

PS (general purpose)
PP (homo injection)
LDPE (film grade)
HDPE (injection moulding)
LLDPE (film grade)
PVC (high quality)
PET (bottle grade)

July

June

May

Apr

Mar

Dec
2019
Jan
Feb

Nov

Oct

Sept

1.0

2018
July
Aug

1.5

mainly as a result of an inflow of
competitively-priced imported
material. By mid-July, polypropylene prices crashed by just less
than the €80/tonne reduction in
the propylene reference price.
In June, the styrene reference
price plummeted €143/tonne
and general-purpose polystyrene
prices fell in line with the drop in
feedstock costs. The July styrene
reference price settled down
€48/tonne and by mid-July general-purpose polystyrene contract prices traded around €45/
tonne lower compared with the
June closing level.
In June, PVC compound
prices were mostly closed on a
rollover basis following unchanged ethylene contract prices. In July, PVC producers
hoped for a margin improvement by holding price rebates
to below the cost reduction.
However, by mid-July PVC compound prices fell in line with
the ethylene cost reduction.
In June, the PET cost base fell
by €85/tonne following sharp
falls in paraxylene and monoethylene glycol. PET producers managed to restrict price rebates to
€65-70/tonne.

in July given the subdued economic activity and the impending
holiday season in Southern Europe. The automotive and construction sectors, in particular,
continued to disappoint. PET bottle demand was very weak in
June but increased sharply in July
with the onset of the warmer
weather.

Supply improves
The cracker plant maintenance
season drew to an end during
early summer with most facilities
returning to normal production.
There were very few new announcements of force majeure
being called since the beginning
of June. However, Total reported
on a PE production outage in
Carling, France due to a malfunction in a heat exchanger system. However, there was no
force majeure declaration or allocation of material as far as is
known.
There was more than sufficient polymer material to meet
demand across all product classes. L/LDPE, HDPE and PP availability was good while PS and PET
supply was much longer.

Demand weak

Late July/August
outlook

In June, buyers held back from
purchasing as they expected a
sharp price reductions in July.
Buying activity was also sluggish

Feedstock development is uncertain but prices seem more likely
to drop further given weak demand and improving supply.

july/august 2019

Plastics News Europe - July/August 2019

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