Latin America stories: weekly summary

SAO PAULO (ICIS)–Here are some of the stories from ICIS Latin America for the week ended on 26 April.

NEWS
Mexico’s potential ADDs on China plastics no panacea amid wider stiff competition – Alpek CEO
Mexico’s potential antidumping duties (ADDs) on several China-produced plastics will not by itself bring the Mexican market back to balance as “stiff competition” is coming from many other fronts as well, the CEO at chemicals producer Alpek said on Wednesday.

INSIGHT: Latin America’s nascent EV market increasingly a Chinese affair
Latin America’s take-up of electric vehicles (EVs) has started to gain momentum, said the International Energy Agency (IEA) this week, with Chinese producers drawing customers with sharply lower prices than western, established brands.

Mexico’s Alpek Q1 earnings fall but volumes up on shy demand recovery
Alpek’s first-quarter earnings and sales fell year on year but improved quarterly on a slight demand recovery, particularly for polyesters, the Mexican chemicals producer said on Tuesday.

PRICING
LatAm PP domestic prices drop in Argentina on poor demand
Domestic polypropylene (PP) prices dropped in Argentina this week. Despite producer prices being unchanged, local distributors have lowered prices due to poor demand. Market participants have reported a 40-60% drop in sales in the past few weeks.

LatAm PE domestic prices down in Argentina on sluggish demand
After more than a year, domestic polyethylene (PE) prices in Argentina were assessed lower due to sluggish demand.

Argentina January PE imports down 32% month on month
Argentina polyethylene (PE) imports decreased by 32% month on month in January, totaling 19,106 tonnes, according to the latest figures from the ICIS Supply & Demand database.