Ineos auctioned HDPE injection at 65 cents/lb ($1,433/mt) delivered in railcars to Houston for shipment in August, an industry source said Tuesday.
The opening price of the auction was also 65 cents/lb.
The company did not return a call to confirm the auction price. Also, neither the volume nor destination of the material purchased was disclosed.
Before the auction several traders said they would not participate as the opening price was too high to work back to back to import markets and traders were not in the mood to take a position on the market moving higher.
Domestic participants also showed little interest in the auction as the opening level was on par or close to the domestic price in July and they did not have confidence August prices would go higher.
"To buy at 65 (cents/lb), you have to assume the 5 (-cent/lb increase) goes through this month and with what's happened the past couple days, no one's confident enough to do that," a source said.
Considering freight costs, the delivered price would be 68 cents/lb to the Midwest and 69 cents/lb to the Northeast, another source said.
