Methodology ICIS - MRC

General Provisions

The prices and analytical overview in our reports is generated based on information collected via the polling of a wide spectrum of market participants, including but not limited to producers, distributors, traders and end-users of polymers throughout the week preceding the date of publication, as well as import, export, railway and production statistics.

Our price assessments and expert commentaries come from our analysis of bids and offers, actual deals and plausible arrangements, rumors and events reported by market players during the assessment week and confirmed by alternative sources. When exchanging information with market sources we always adhere to expressed or implied, written or verbal confidentiality understanding and never disclose the information they share with us in confidence to third parties.

The domestic price in our reports, unless otherwise specified, is a price paid by an end-user of the polymer, delivered, VAT included. Import prices are quoted on a delivered at frontier basis for cargoes delivered by rail or truck or on a cost & freight, main port basis for cargoes transported by sea. The prices are quoted in a range that includes deals by different market participants and in different volumes. The report covers five Former Soviet Union (FSU) markets: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Classification of products

LDPE - high-pressure polyethylene (low-density), resultant from ethylene polymerisation at high pressure in tubular reactors and stirring reactors using radical initiators. Reports refer to HDPE as polyethylene grades with density not more than 0.94g/cm³.

HDPE - low-pressure polyethylene (high-density), produced by suspension and gas-phase ethylene polymerisation methods at low pressure on complex metalloorganic catalysts in suspension and in gas phase. All our Reports refer to HDPE as polyethylene grades with density not more than 0.94g/cm³. 

LLDPE - linear low-density polyethylene is similar to HDPE in its structure, ie it has a linear structure and, at the same time, more and longer side branches - short chains – allowing the control of the density of the polymer up to 0.94g/cm³.

Producers

Producers are companies engaged exclusively in direct production of PE - ie analysis does not include all trading, intermediate and offshore companies. Names of producers are given without inverted commas; their form of legal incorporation is omitted. We indicate only general names of groups of companies without names of their subsidiaries.

Quotes, terms and conditions

In the Russian market, domestic PE prices presented in the report are indicated as CPT, European part of Russia (Moscow) for domestic PE, or DDP for imported material, VAT included, Rb/tonne. For the Ukrainian market, PE quotes are indicated as DDP, Kiev, VAT included, UAH/tonne.

The assessments imply loading dates from 7 to 30 days from the date of publication. Terms of payment: unless otherwise indicated, all quotes are indicated for shipment against payment. The standard cargo size is 20-100 tonnes for domestic deliveries; 20-500 tonnes for European cargoes; and 200-1,000 tonnes for Asian imports.

Diagrams and tables

The diagrams in the report use aggregate data (usually volume-weighted averages) and are provided only to illustrate general price dynamics in one-week and/or one-year perspective. For accurate figures please refer to the tables and the text.

Designations

The following designations are used in the report: m - million; Rb - Russian ruble; $ - US dollar; ? - Euro; HRN - Ukrainian hryvna; BRb - Belarusian ruble; Tenge - Kazakh tenge; Som - Uzbekistan sum; RF - Russian Federation; BY - Belarus; UA - Ukraine; KZ - Kazakhstan; UZ - Uzbekistan. SPb - port of Saint-Petersburg; FD - free delivered; NWE - Northwest Europe; NEA - Northeast Asia; EU - Europe.