Middle Eastern offers show up for Nov in Lebanon, Algeria

Players in Lebanon are receiving import PP and PE offers from the Middle Eastern suppliers with mainly rollovers as a Qatari producer announced its PE prices for November shipments at unchanged levels from October.

The producer’s PE offers stand at $1190/ton for HDPE film, $1200/ton for LLDPE film and $1290/ton for LDPE film on CIF Beirut, 90 days.

A household manufacturer reported, “We are waiting to receive stable offers from other Middle Eastern suppliers as well. Demand is currently good as buyers are securing their needs ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays. However, players limit their purchases as they expect to see some decreases towards the year end.”

Following this, the same manufacturer received new offers from a major Saudi producer with rollovers at $1230/ton for PP raffia and inj., $1260/ton for PP film, $1240/ton PP block copolymer; $1220/ton for HDPE and LLDPE film, $1240/ton for HDPE inj., $1250/ton for HDPE b/m, $1310/ton for LDPE film and $1320/ton for LLDPE inj., all CIF Beirut, 90 days deferred payment.

In Algeria, however, the Saudi major approached the market with rollovers for PE and $40/ton increases for PP, adopting a similar policy as in Egypt. The producer raised its homo PP offers by $30-50/ton to Egypt while applying rollovers to $20/ton increases on its PE offers.

Accordingly, PP prices are reported at $1270/ton for PP raffia and inj. while PE offers stand at $1250/ton for HDPE film, $1280/ton for LLDPE c4 film and $1350/ton for LDPE film, all CIF Algeria, 90 days basis.

A distributor reported, “This is the third consecutive month of PP hikes from the producer despite stagnant demand. Overall market activities are slow amidst economical challenges and the blurry outlook. Hence, inquiries are limited and we expect prices to follow a more or less steady path until the end of the year as demand is not expected to pick up.”