A Thai trader reported to SSESSMENTS.COM that buyers in the domestic market are unmoved despite changes in PE and PP prices this week. As of Tuesday, July 21, local PP Homo Raffia and PP Homo Film offers from a local producer recorded stable on a weekly comparison. However, on Thursday, July 23, the producer decided to reduce the local offers for PP Homo Raffia and PP Homo Film by THB2,000/ton ($63/ton). Following the adjustment, the trader heard that another local producer also adjusted down its local PP Homo Raffia offers to a similar level to the producer’s offers. Market talks have it that the other producer is offering PP Homo Raffia cargoes at THB32,500/ton ($1,024/ton) on cash, FD Thailand basis and excluding 7% VAT, which is THB1,000/ton ($32/ton) lower compared to the offers available in the market.
Despite the reduction in PP prices, SSESSMENTS.COM was told that buyers are still showing cold response and even uninterested in submitting bids amid sufficient inventory on hand. Moreover, the demand for finished products reportedly remains sluggish. On the other hand, producers are also unwilling to sell at a lower price as the current offers are deemed to be the lowest they could accept. To the export market, the offers for Thai PP Homo Raffia and PP Homo Injection cargoes to the Vietnam market were stable over the week. The trader stated that the company intentionally kept export offers unchanged since they are waiting for buyers to submit bids, although they noticed the high offers also drive buyers away.
For PE, offers for local HDPE Film and LLDPE Film C4 cargoes from a Thai PE producer were adjusted higher by THB1,000/ton ($32/ton) from last week. Although PE prices in the China market are softening, the producer is unwilling to lower the offers claiming that such a level is quite reasonable considering the import prices. Similar to PP, the trader commented to SSESSMENTS.COM that the demand for PE in the market remains slow since finished product sales are yet to pick up.
