- Offers for PP during March captured stable to softer
- Demand gradually diminished throughout March, heavy impact on finished products for export
- The outlook for Bangladesh PP market remains pessimistic
In the first week of March, SSESSMENTS.COM noted that most traders kept their offers unchanged, with some transactions were successfully concluded at the initial offer level. Strolling to the following week, PP Homo Raffia and PP Homo Injection from the Middle East went down between $20-30/ton. Meanwhile, offers for cargoes of India origin were maintained stable. All price changes were on a weekly comparison. At that time, a global trading house stated that offers for PP Homo Film were quite high compared to other PP cargoes to the Bangladesh market due to limited supply.
In the week commencing March 16, a global trading house managed to sell Indian PP Homo Raffia cargoes at $940/ton. While for PP Homo Injection cargoes of the same origin, the trader’s offers recorded slightly higher compared to done deals for PP Homo Raffia as the supply is lesser. At the same time, another global trading house voiced out buyers’ buy idea at $900/ton for Chinese and Middle Eastern PP Homo Raffia cargoes but there were no cargoes available at such a level yet. In the final week, Indian PP Homo Raffia offers were lowered between $40-50/ton from a week earlier. Likewise, Saudi PP Homo Raffia and PP Homo Film cargoes captured at $20/ton lower than the offer level available 10 days earlier. During the week, the number of transactions and inquiries has been declining significantly due to the Coronavirus outbreak, SSESSMENTS.COM was told.
Based on the information obtained by SSESSMENTS.COM’s team, demand for PP in Bangladesh was sluggish during March. Citing that buying sentiment was gradually softening owing to the intensified spreads of Coronavirus. The outbreak is also reportedly weighing on export sales, particularly from the garment sector. In the first half of the month, the outbreak still has yet to affect the demand for plastic bags. However, in the third week, buyers’ inquiries were very limited and demand for the end products from export destination countries started to decrease. In the final week, as the number of the Coronavirus cases continue to grow, the Bangladesh government decided to impose a nationwide lockdown from March 26 until April 4 and ordered a suspension of all modes of transportation. Due to this, logistics and trading activities were affected; most market participants have started to leave their desks, while some prefer to adopt a wait-and-see stance in anticipation of lower prices in the days to come. On the supply side, the availability of PP Homo Homo Rafia and PP Homo Injection is quite tight during the first week of March. At the same time, supply for PP Homo Homo Film is very scarce due to limited offers from foreign suppliers.
Looking ahead, Bangladeshi market participants opined to SSESSMENTS.COM that the 10-day nationwide lockdown will heavily impact the PP market. Some sources even predicted that the lockdown might be extended beyond April 4 as the cases of Coronavirus continue to climb. As such, the outlook for Bangladesh PP market remains pessimistic in the near term.
