A month-long lockdown has halted petrochemicals market activities in the Philippines and led to congestion at the port, sources told SSESSMENTS.COM. As reported by market players, around 97% of converters in the Philippines have stopped production activities; hence, no buyers are interested in taking cargoes. Additionally, for the factories that are still operating, the production rate is only around 20-25% from normal capacity due to slow sales amid Coronavirus lockdown.
Further added, there is a congestion issue at the port as containers have been piling up. As SSESSMENTS.COM noted, more and more containers are coming in but only 40% of what has been unloaded can move out of the port’s gates. Due to this, the Philippines government is planning to shut Manila Port, the Philippines’ biggest port within 3 to 5 days. Some players opined that this congestion at the port will not be even cleared by the third week of April. As such, this situation has hindered buyers from replenishing stocks.
