American Dow Chemical, an international petrochemical giant, announced an increase in October prices for all brands of polyethylene (PE) in the US market by 3 cents per pound (USD66 per tonne), ICIS reported on Wednesday, citing a letter from the company sent to its customers.

According to the letter, this increase in PE prices comes into force on October 1, 2018 or according to the terms of the current contracts.

The company adds this increase in quotations to the previously announced price increase of PE by 5 cents per pound (USD110 per tonne) from September 1.

The decision of Dow Chemical to raise the prices of PE in the US was caused by growing raw material quotes.

The key manufacturers of PE in the US are Chevron Phillips Chemical (CP Chem), DowDupont, LyondellBasell, ExxonMobil, Formosa, INEOS, Total Petrochemicals and Westlake.

According to the Price Review of ICIS-MRC, in the Russian market of high-pressure polyethylene (LDPE), the lack of supply is growing due to stoppages for the prevention of a number of capacities. Also, PE prices are rising, but there is no excitement in this regard. The processors react calmly enough to the current situation. In the segment of low-density polyethylene (HDPE), there is also a small supply shortage in most segments, the price increase continued. At the same time, electronic trading last week marked a price rollback.

Dow Chemical is an American diversified chemical company headquartered in Midland, Michigan. It is a large producer of polymer products, including polystyrene, polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene and synthetic rubbers. The company produces more than five thousand products at 188 production facilities in 37 countries. Earlier it was noted that the chemical companies Dow Chemical Co and DuPont completed the merger on September 1, 2017, within the framework of which the company DowDuPont was established.