Curtailed plant operations, lower imports sufficient to supply market / Hesitant increase in orders from automotive industry

The price reductions negotiated back in October for Q4 2025 were also reflected in December. By contrast, monthly spot contracts were marked by the usual Christmas lull and were mostly fixed at a rollover. Most European plants continued to operate at reduced rates in order to avoid swelling producers’ inventories further. Imports from Asia also arrived in Europe in smaller volumes. Demand remained weak, as many processors went into the Christmas break early after completing their limited order books.

Suppliers’ stocks are well-filled. This will likely continue to be a topic for price negotiations – and is likely to exert significant pressure on quotations. Call-offs from the automotive industry are also picking up more slowly than expected and hoped. Compounding lines are gradually being brought back into operation, but at a considerably slower pace than in previous years. January is often seen as a transition month. For converters, it is too early to fill their stocks on a large scale. Apart from that, it is not yet possible to reliably estimate how demand will develop in the first quarter.

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