By John Richardson
China’s petrochemical imports continued to decline in June on tight credit conditions and price rises that deterred consumers, according to our colleagues at ICIS news.
Linear-low density polyethylene (LLDPE) imports fell by 18% month-on-month and 3% year-on-year, for example. High-density PE (HDPE) shipments slipped by 4% month-on-month and 8% year-on-year.
Benzene shipments halved both compared with May 2011 and with June last year, indicating the broad-based nature of the affordability issue that we have discussed before on the blog.
The June numbers provide further support to the argument that recent price increases are going to be hard to sustain, unless the government is able to introduce effective measures to ease the plight of chemicals and polymer buyers.