London (Platts)--17Feb2011/713 am EST/1213 GMT
After the substantial price rally over the past months, European low density polyethylene spot prices have taken a breather and are weighed down by slow end-user demand even though product is tight, market sources said this week. Spot prices have shed Eur10/mt ($13.50/mt) on the week and closed at Eur1,430-1,435/mt FD NWE Wednesday. The spot market was seen as overheated this week, with some traders stepping in to take profits, sources said. Some competitive offers filtered through despite limited availability as buying interest started to wane. "Offers from traders have come down from Eur1,480/mt at the beginning of the month to Eur1,450/mt FD NWE, as they found that those offers were just too high," a converter said. "It is the traders that are taking aggressive positions as some of them have panicked that their higher price offers did not materialize," one trader said. "LDPE spot prices are not picking up anymore," another trader said. "They are seeing a marginal downward correction." Some traders remained relatively bullish, however, and said that they were still able to sell in the high $1,400s. --Nandita Lal, nandita_lal@platts.comSimilar stories appear in Polymerscan. See more information at http://bit.ly/Polymerscan