European polymer markets open post-holiday period on a firm note

European players are yet to come back to their desks after holidays and January sell ideas started to emerge higher in line with the higher monomer settlements. Some sellers have already announced their official offers for January. January ethylene and propylene contracts were fully settled up €45/ton at €985/ton and €770/ton FD NWE, respectively.

In Italy, a distributor expressed his sell ideas €45-50/ton higher for all PE grades. The distributor commented, “We are still waiting to receive our supplier’s official guidelines. In our opinion, demand-supply will set the tone of the market. Demand is not expected to pick up considerably as some buyers had made some pre-buying in December. However, demand is likely to be in balance with relatively limited supply.” Meanwhile the distributor is seeking larger increases than that of propylene hikes for PP inj. and PPBC, claiming that their supply is short and demand is not expected to be good with most converters having built stocks in December.

A West European producer also revealed January PP prices with larger increases of €60-70/ton to recoup their margins. A producer source reported, “Demand is not expected to strengthen this month while supply is also short due to some planned shutdowns in Europe. PP copolymer is reportedly tighter than homo-PP.”

Another seller reported offering Mid-Eastern PP and LDPE with €45-50/ton hikes, attributing their decision to the higher contract settlements.

A different distributor reported that he didn’t receive any official PVC offers from his supplier. Still, the seller expects that suppliers will ask for half of the cost of the ethylene hike. “The market will remain quiet until next week as players are not fully back from the holidays,” he added.

A West European producer has already started to announce initial PVC offers with €25/ton hikes for January. The producer commented that they will only see the market reaction when all players return to their desks.

Players concur that it is early to forecast the market response considering that converters are covered for the large part of the month and supply is not that ample.