US polyethylene producers have begun to push their 5 cents/lb price hike for August to September, industry sources said Friday.
"We've seen enough competitives out there that we decided to move the increase to September," a producer said.
ExxonMobil was said to be the first producer to give up on the increase and others have followed.
Sources said demand simply was not strong enough to support the August increase.
The weak demand was evident in PE auctions over the last two weeks run by Ineos. A week ago, Ineos held and HDPE injection auction that concluded at 65 cents/lb, while this week the company held an HDPE, HMLI extrusion resin auction that got done at 61.9 cents/lb.
Soft demand was also seen in the export market where traders said importers were only interested in buying just what they needed and lacked confidence to build inventory.
In pushing the increase to September, PE makers would then push their 6 cents/lb previously announced September increase to October, a supplier said.
