Russia LDPE prices continued to fall in July on weak demand

Sergey Karaichentsev

02-Aug-2017

MOSCOW (MRC)–Russian low density polyethylene (LDPE) prices continue to fall due to weak demand with scheduled maintenance shutdowns at two LDPE plants failing to balance the market, according to the ICIS-MRC Price report.

Angarsk Polymers Plant shut down its LDPE production for a long turnaround in mid-July, while Gazprom neftekhim Salavat took its production capacities off-stream in early July.

Despite the long outages, price reduction continued with weak demand for polyethylene (PE) remaining a major pressure on prices.

The LDPE market was calm in the first half of July and the price adjustment was minor.

However, dynamics of the price cut deepened in the second half of the month. Prices for some LDPE grades dropped below Rb80,000/tonne ($1,126/tonne)CPT (carriage paid to) Moscow, including VAT, in the last week of July.

At the same time, prices of LDPE for shrinkable films production (153 grade PE) remained fairly high. Spot deals for this LDPE were mainly done in the range of Rb92,500-96,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT, in late July.

The period of long scheduled shutdowns for maintenance is coming to an end.

Angarsk Polymers Plant began to resume its production last weekend and Gazprom neftekhim Salavat plans to resume LDPE production on 5 August.

Ufaorgsintez and Tomskneftekhim intend to shut down LDPE production capacities for short turnarounds in August-September. But taking into account the July experience, the planned outages are unlikely to put upward pressure on prices.

($1 = Rb71.06)

MRC, a partner of ICIS, produces polymers news and pricing reports from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

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