Despite the rollover with the ethylene feedstock, initial offers in August from European producers were for increases around the €100 ($107) per tonne mark. Converters refused to go along with this.
Later in the month, however, producers increasingly insisted on price hikes, even if it meant that they nipped a lot of the ordering in the bud. In eastern Europe, prices fell – in...
In the case of most PE materials, producers had to bite the bullet in July and yield to converters’ pressure by granting them reductions that went significantly further than the fall in the cost of the monomer.
Only a few HD and LLD types were able to extricate themselves almost completely from this trend. Many plastics film manufacturers have been reporting a machine utilisation rate...
The industry has still not managed to pull itself from its vale of tears, with production, demand and consumption all weak.
Like producers, converters are...