The Democratic Party of Korea is pushing to introduce a "three-month average price" system for synthetic resins supplied by the petrochemical industry, aiming to ease the burden on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) including plastic manufacturers. The move comes as synthetic resin prices — a key raw material for plastics — have surged due to the Middle East crisis, and is intended to limit the scale of supply price hikes by petrochemical companies. The party also plans to introduce a time-lag system of approximately two weeks for price increases to curb sharp short-term price spikes.
According to the Democratic Party's Special Committee on Economic Response to the Middle East War on the 6th, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) reported the plan. The FTC explained, "Through the Democratic Party's social dialogue body, we are discussing measures to apply a time-lag system for petrochemical product price increases and ways to secure supply volumes." The commission added that it is specifically reviewing gradual and predictable pricing mechanisms, including biweekly increases (time-lag system) and the application of three-month average prices. The Democratic Party has launched a social dialogue body with six petrochemical companies — SK Geocentric, Hanwha Solutions, LG Chem, GS Caltex, Lotte Chemical, and S-Oil — and is requesting they lower supply prices for synthetic resins and other products.
The plastics industry has participated in the social dialogue body, voicing difficulties over the petrochemical industry's steep price hikes. The plastics industry reportedly told the Euljiro Committee, "Petrochemical companies supplying synthetic resins have used their oligopolistic position to notify a 50% price increase in March alone," adding that "they are signaling continued large-scale supply price increases in April as well." An Euljiro Committee official explained, "The SME industry's view is: they made synthetic resins using naphtha and crude oil imported when oil prices were at $60, so why are they suddenly raising supply prices as if they made resins with $100 crude the moment the war started?" The official added, "We are requesting that synthetic resin prices be raised gradually with a time lag."