Following the active trades seen in the first half of the month in Italy, PE buyers have started to take a waiting stance these days, report some traders. Although there were widespread speculations about a further firming for the near term last week, these are not being pronounced so widely in the market this week.

A trader who has started to offer for March commented that the trading activity has slowed down this week after two weeks of good demand. Buyers who have completed their purchases prefer to wait for now as they want to see how the market will evolve. Buyers now hope to see rollovers in PE next month as they also expect to see the ethylene contract settlement at a rollover for March, the trader said. Although producers may ask for increases, buyers believe that it will be done to hold the market steady, he added.

A South European producer also expects to see a small increase for LDPE based on tight supply and good demand while they think that HDPE will rollover as demand for this product is not very strong. Another trader affirmed the slowdown in market activity. Although their customers are now resistant to their offers standing close to the high end of the overall spot ranges, he remains firm with his offers.

In order to see an indication about the upcoming ethylene contract settlement, players are closely watching the evolution of the spot ethylene market, which has been mostly steady since the beginning of the month.