Nigeria’s ELEME adjusts up Jan PP, PE prices

Nigeria’s local PP and PE producer, who initially had issued decreases of NGN5000/ton ($25/ton) for PE and NGN6000/ton ($30/ton) for PP for January, decided to adjust their prices upward this week.

According to players’ reports, the producer issued NGN16,000-20,000/ton ($80-100/ton) increases on their January PE offers while they lifted their PP prices by NGN10,000-16,000/ton ($50-80/ton).

The producer offers HDPE film at NGN341,000/ton ($1714/ton), HDPE b/m at NGN338,000/ton ($1699/ton), HDPE injection at NGN339,000/ton ($1704/ton), LLDPE film at NGN335,000/ton ($1684/ton), LLDPE injection at NGN345,000/ton ($1734/ton), PP raffia at NGN297,000/ton ($1493/ton), PP injection at NGN294,000/ton ($1478/ton) and PPBC injection at NGN307,000-315,000/ton ($1543-1583/ton) ex-Port Harcourt, cash excluding 5% VAT.

A trader operating in Lagos, Nigeria, commented, “Given the declining value of the naira against the US dollar, import trade has been hampered significantly. Plus, difficulties when trying to open letters of credit at banks continue since the Nigerian government gives priority to imports related to food and medicine rather than plastics. Therefore, locally held import supplies have become scarce in the distribution market and this situation gave an upper hand to ELEME to raise their prices. Plus, ELEME’s deliveries are restricted as their plant is not operating at full rates. On another note, the economy of the country has been affected quite negatively from 13-year low crude oil prices since Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, is heavily reliant on crude oil exports."