Market and product

HOUSTON (ICIS)--The local polyethylene (PE) producer in Argentina is increasing prices for all grades of PE in April by $100/tonne on scarcity of material, market sources said on Tuesday.

There are two versions describing the increases. The producer says that price of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) for film applications will go up by $100/tonne, while linear low density (LLDPE) and HDPE for blow moulding applications will only have a $50/tonne increase.

This was confirmed by distributors, but plastic converters insist that the $100/tonne increase is applied indistinctively to all grades.

Both statements are correct, as the differentiation in prices allows distributors to remain competitive in comparison with prices for direct clients.

Imported PE product from Brazil will likely show similar increases this month, but the price direction for April was described as unclear.

Braskem imports must go through a system of applications for import permits (DJAI’s, Spanish acronym), and sometimes the company ends up with much of one product and not enough of others, making their available stocks erratic.

Supply remains tight in the country because the production plants in Bahia Blanca have recently had a series of maintenance outages - some planned, some unplanned - that have created tightness in the market for LDPE and HDPE film grades in particular.

The plants have resumed normal operations, but inventories have not fully recovered.

Prior to this increase, LDPE prices in Argentina were in the range of $2,288-2,420/tonne DEL (delivered), while the price of LLDPE butene and HDPE blow moulding were at $2,146-2,340/tonne DEL, according to ICIS data.