Combined shipments from major Middle Eastern exporters, totaling over half of China's total LDPE imports, fell nearly half in the first seven months of the year, a gap the market has been unable to close even as hopes for fresh Iranian cargoes repeatedly fell short.
Rayong Olefins Company's naphtha cracker returned to operation last week, closing out a six month force majeure triggered when Middle East tensions cut off a route that had supplied significant amount of its feedstock.
The swift midday move reflects an effort to keep local pricing aligned with rapidly firming Southeast Asian import offers, driven by higher upstream benchmarks and Middle East logistics concerns.
Indonesia's major producer revised its price list on 17 September for the first time since last week's four rounds of increases, with PE largely rolled over this time while PP saw broad hikes.
A slowdown in futures trading on the Dalian Commodity Exchange has done little to dampen bullish sentiment in China’s domestic spot homo-PP and LLDPE film markets.
Southeast Asian homo-PP yarn offers into Indonesia pushed past $1,400/ton at the close of last week, the highest level since May's US-Iran driven spike.
With regional offers exc. India still holding below the psychological $900/ton threshold, market participants are weighing the probability sellers could test that level next if crude strength persists.
Cumulative weekly gains showed homo-PP leading the advance. Tight prompt availability and firm feedstock costs remain the core drivers, reinforced by bullish upstream cues.
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