Braskem plans to raise prices of polypropylene (PP) from April 1 to 3 cents per pound (USD66 ton), ICIS reports with reference to the company’s letter to customers.

Also, LyondellBasell plans to raise the price of PP by 5 cents per pound (USD110 per ton) from April.

In the second half of 2017 PP producers in the US intended to raise prices by 3 cents per pound, but this could not be realized, as a sharp rise in prices during the fourth quarter led to a decrease in buyers’ margins and contributed to the fact that processors did not accept price increases.

Buyers have reduced the capacity utilization and switched to import purchases in the last few months due to a sharp increase in domestic PP prices. The reduction in contract prices of PP by 6 cents per pound (USD132 per tonne) in February has been a relief for US buyers and is expected to lead to lower imports and higher capacity utilization.

The February contract prices for homopolymer PP (PP homo) were agreed at the level of 71-75 cents per pound (USD1562-1650 per ton), while the contract prices of PP block copolymers were at the level of 72-76 cents per pound (USD1584- 1672 per tonne).

Earlier it was reported that exports of polypropylene (PP) from the United States to other world markets increased by 13% last year compared to 2016. In December, 2017, the export of material from the country fell by 36% compared to the same month of the previous year.

According to the DataScope of the company MRC, in December 2017 Russian companies went for a serious reduction in external supplies of PP, imports amounted to 10.4 thousand tons against 16.3 thousand tons. Import of homopolymer of propylene (PP-homo) of raffia and block copolymer of propylene (PP block) decreased. In general, in 2017, 171.2 thousand tons of propylene polymers were imported to Russia against 167.2 thousand tons a year earlier. A serious reduction in external supplies was recorded for PP-homo, while the largest increase in imports fell on the PP-block.

The main US producers in the US are Braskem, ExxonMobil, Formosa, INEOS, LyondellBasell and Total Petrochemicals.