A Thai trader opined that the Coronavirus pandemic will leave a long-term impact on the PP market. In the domestic market, the local offers for PP Homo Film, PP Homo Injection, and PP Homo Raffia dropped by THB1,000/ton ($30/ton) from last week. Likewise, export offers for PP Homo Film and PP Homo Raffia from a Thai producer to Vietnam market also decreased by $20/ton compared to the same period. For PP Homo Raffia, buyers were submitting bids at $20/ton lower than the initial offer level and rejected by the producer. Done deals were eventually concluded at the initial offer level, and trader’s export PP allocation to Vietnam for this week already sold out. Sources added to SSESSMENTS.COM that some customers are more willing to make procurement while others remain hesitant as the uptrend in China predicted to be short-lived.
As reported to SSESSMENTS.COM, the demand for PE has been flat even before the Coronavirus pandemic affected the global market. Thus, the outbreak worsened the situation in Thailand. “Although the pandemic will be over in two months, the government will have a lot of problems to solve,” the trader stated. After the pandemic, the companies that close the businesses and those who have debts due to the slow business during the pandemic will need stimulus from the government to recover from the impact. As such, the government spendings will most likely be used to recover from the Coronavirus crisis. Hence, the market outlook in 2020 would remain gloomy.
