SunSirs: Rubber and Plastics Industries Bulk Commodity Intelligence (September 25, 2025)

Macroeconomics

1. [MLF] The People's Bank of China announced that, to maintain ample liquidity in the banking system, it will conduct a 600 billion RMB medium-term lending facility (MLF) operation on September 25th, using a fixed-volume, interest-rate tendering method with multiple price levels. The term is one year.

2. [US-EU Tariffs] The United States confirmed that EU cars and auto parts will face 15% tariffs, retroactive to August 1st.

3. [Bank of England] Bank of England Governor Bailey stated that interest rates still have room to fall, but the timing and extent of the reduction will depend on the trajectory of inflation. The labor market, in particular, is showing signs of weakness, which is also reflected slightly in employment data.

4. [German Business Climate Index] Germany's Ifo business climate index fell 1.2 points to 87.7 in September, the lowest level since May and the largest monthly drop in the past year.

5. [Australian CPI] Australia's CPI rose 3% year-on-year in August, the highest level since July 2024, reaching the upper limit of the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) 2%-3% inflation target range. However, the trimmed mean of core inflation, the RBA's preferred indicator, fell to 2.6% from 2.7% in July.

Rubber and Plastics

1. [PP] Guangxi Petrochemical's 400,000 tons/year polypropylene project reportedly successfully commenced trial production on September 19.

2. [PE] On September 24, Shandong Wanhua Chemical's 450,000 tons/year full-density unit produced 7042. The 350,000 tons/year HDPE unit was shut down for maintenance on the 14th, with an uncertain restart date. The 250,000 tons/year LDPE unit produced 2426H. In East China, LLDPE 7042 remained stable at 7,500 RMB/ton; LLDPE 7047 was quoted at 7,400 RMB/ton, down 100 RMB/ton; and LDPE 2420H (price includes pallet) was quoted at 9,615 RMB/ton, down 50 RMB/ton.

3. [Natural Rubber] On September 24, the market price of natural rubber raw materials in Thailand remained stable but trended downward: smoked sheets were quoted at 61.05 baht/kg, down 0.20 baht/kg; rubber was stable at 55.30 baht/kg; and cup rubber was stable at 53.75 baht/kg.

4. [Natural Rubber] The latest data shows that in the first eight months of 2025, Thailand exported a total of 1.789 million tons of natural rubber (excluding compounded rubber), a year-on-year decrease of 8%. Of this total, standard rubber exports totaled 1.017 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 19%; smoked sheet rubber exports were 265,000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 21%; and latex exports were 496,000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 9%.

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