- Remarkable price changes were seen for Middle Eastern cargoes in early May
- Pakistan PP market improved significantly following the lockdown relaxation
- Players are adopting a wait-and-see stance on the back of blurry market outlook
On the week commencing May 4, SSESSMENTS.COM was told that May shipment price list for PP Homopolymer grades from a Saudi producer surfaced in the Pakistan market with a notable reduction of $130/ton as compared to March shipment offers. At the same time, offers for Malaysian PP Homo Raffia via traders were available at $860/ton on LC at sight, CFR Karachi Port, no price comparison as the offer did not appear in the Pakistan market for quite some time. In the following week, May shipment offers for PP Homo Raffia from an Emirati producer emerged with a decrease of between $10-20/ton on a monthly comparison. At that time, a trader mentioned that deals for PP Homo Raffia of Oman origin achieved at $820/ton, while PP Homo Injection from a Saudi producer sold at $815-830/ton. For Saudi PP Homo Raffia cargoes, deals were concluded at $820-830/ton. All transactions were on LC at sight, CFR Karachi Port. Moving to the third and fourth week of the month, offers and transactions were scarce due to Eid Al-Fitr holiday mood. In the third week, deals for PP Homo Raffia cargoes of Middle East origin via a global trading house achieved at $830/ton on LC at sight, CFR Karachi Port. While in the fourth week of May, there were no PP offers reported by Pakistani market players to SSESSMENTS.COM.
As SSESSMENTS.COM noted, the mobility limit and lockdown in Pakistan were still undergoing until May 9. However, the government at the same time imposed a system that enabled industry and economy to resume operation in several low-risk areas under strict safety guidelines. Upon the lockdown relaxation coupled with the government’s effort to stimulate the local industry, vigorous activities observed in the Pakistan market since the second week of the month. Some buyers started to purchase PP cargoes after not buying materials for almost two months. Even when demand from the export market remained sluggish, improvement in the Pakistan market was single-handedly lifted by domestic consumption; most converters were only purveying solely for domestic demand. However, when most players were already in a holiday mood, the market fell back to the bearish tone in the last two weeks of May. On the supply side, no significant issue reported to SSESSMENTS.COM during the month.
Looking into June, the majority of market players contacted by SSESSMENTS.COM voiced out that the Pakistan PP market is rather hard to predict, hence, the outlook remains blurry. Due to this, most players prefer to wait on the sidelines to monitor the market further before making any decisions.
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WeeklySSESSMENTS: Pakistan PP Prices Week Starting May 4
