On July 17, China's domestic plastics futures market experienced a broad retreat. The LLDPE main contract closed at 7,671 yuan/ton, down 92 yuan/ton (-1.19%); PP main contract closed at 8,044 yuan/ton, down 47 yuan/ton (-0.58%); while the PVC weighted index closed at 4,511 yuan/ton, plummeting 138 yuan/ton (-2.97%), leading the decline across the entire chemical sector.
From a trading perspective, LLDPE futures opened at 7,730 yuan/ton, touched a high of 7,778 yuan/ton, and then trended downward to a low of 7,635 yuan/ton, with open interest at 376,600 lots, slightly up from the previous session. The PP main contract showed significant intraday volatility, briefly surging to 8,164 yuan/ton in early trading before pulling back to close at 8,044 yuan/ton, with open interest at 493,700 lots.
PVC futures were the weakest performer, with the weighted index falling nearly 3% in a single session to a low of 4,495 yuan/ton. Trading volume reached 1.053 million lots, with a turnover of 24.03 billion yuan, indicating substantial selling pressure. In the spot market, mainstream PVC offers ranged between 4,480-4,950 yuan/ton, with calcium carbide-based PVC in South China quoted at approximately 4,880 yuan/ton.
Analysts attribute the recent plastics correction to three main factors: first, crude oil prices have entered a consolidation range after the earlier rebound, weakening cost-side support; second, downstream demand has entered the traditional off-season, with operating rates declining in end-user sectors such as agricultural film and pipe materials; and third, some varieties had seen significant earlier gains, creating technical correction needs.
