In mid-April 2023, the diminished demand from buyers caused a cascading effect throughout the Ethylene value chain, impacting its lower segments, including High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE), which affected the prices of the product in Europe. There was a noticeable decline in the overall willingness to purchase within the HDPE market due to the persistent economic downturn. Additionally, the market players opted to put cost pressure on Polyethylene markets, resulting in low to empty orders this week.

In the Q1 of 2023, The spot activity in the European HDPE market was muted for most of March 2023 amid the weakening of demand fundamentals. The European demand has remained subdued in the previous quarter of 2023, as market players saw consumer buying appetite on a need basis and limited the operational activity in the market. Meanwhile, European HDPE enterprises felt provoking wide uncertainty from the market players as OPEC discontinued crude oil production, and sanctions disrupted the Russian output at the termination of March 2023. Moreover, the European strikes are the latest in a series of industrial actions that have gripped big economies in response to rising prices and restricted the buying sentiments for the HDPE this week.

Conclusively, the overall HDPE prices in the first week of April 2023 have been low, backed by the lackluster operational rates in the international and domestic markets amidst stagnancy in the consumer purchasing sentiments in the region. According to market analysis, due to competitive market conditions and large stock volumes, market players are anticipated to maintain a gloomy outlook for HDPE in the first half of the month due to weak demand fundamentals and subdued spot activity across the globe.

As per ChemAnalyst, HDPE prices are expected to surge with a sharp rise in upstream crude oil costs and anticipated uplift in the input cost pressure in the European market.