• Domestic PE market has traditionally slowed down in July compared to June;

• Market players believe that domestic demand will improve in August in preparation to autumn and festivities;

• Domestic supply has been more than sufficient;

• Hurricane Beryl hit Texas on Monday;

• A lot of petrochemical plants are located there;

• Some producers, namely, Formosa, LyondellBasell and Dow have reportedly shut its complexes down in the region, including PE plants, as a cautionary measure;

• Most players believe that petrochemical infrastructure has taken only a minor hit by wind and minimal flooding and sure that producers will restart its plants as soon as possible;

• Only a few think that it may take a while until producers commission its facilities;

• Players believe that at least the week of production has been lost;

• Houston area warehouses have also closed ahead of hurricane;

• Some warehouses have been idle due to power outages at the start of this week;

• The Port of Houston has been closed temporarily early this week;

• Most producers have refrained from offering PE for export due to factors mentioned above;

• Prices on FAS Houston basis have been stable as a result;

• Higher offers of blow-moulding HDPE, film LDPE and C4-LLDPE have been present in the market;

• Players have yet to report any closed deals at those levels;

• Supply has been insufficient this week.

Producers will push export PE prices up next week. All grades but injection HDPE ones will get at least $40/t higher due to limited supply amid production interruptions. The availability will somewhat improve after suppliers announce new quotes and start sending allocations to customers. Demand will be moderate. Latin American buyers will be the most active. Formosa has reportedly started commissioning its complex in Point Comfort in the middle of this week.