Standard Thermoplastics Trend February 2015: Further price cuts/ Demand rockets as prices bottom out/ Producers start turning down orders after only a few days in hopes of a turnaround / Oil will point the way

摘要

In early February, things went much as expected. Although European standard thermoplastics suppliers were again forced to grant substantial discounts for their regular business, they have not yet had to pass on the cost reductions in full. The clearly evident bottoming out of oil and naphtha prices triggered a sudden burst of buying activity in the first few days of February, releasing the pent-up demand of the last two months. Polyolefin suppliers especially received more orders than they could cope with directly, inducing many of them to impose order stops for PE and PP, and in some cases also for PS, at the end of the first week.