There have been a few important developments in the plastics market. Chinese prices for LDPE/LLDPE granules are very low compared with those in Europe. At the same time, there are just a few buyers active in the market. In the Romanian market, meanwhile, there is substantial interest in LDPE/LLDPE granules and supply is currently too low compared to demand.
Europe is seeing increasing restrictions on scrap movements between EU members as a large proportion of mixed scrap materials are sent to Eastern Europe where landfill charges are much lower. Many container checks are being conducted by environmental agencies to identify any illegal shipments or to verify whether the materials in the container are different to what has been declared.
There are high order levels for both PET bales and flakes whereas engineering plastics are not in good demand and this situation seems unlikely to improve in the near future.
Andrei Mihai Sofian
Rematholding CO. SRL. (ROU), Young Trader Representative to the BIR Plastics Committee
Country
Romania