Despite Slight Demand Changes, Uncertainties Cast A Shadow On China PET Market Outlook
- Local PET Bottle offers adjusted following PTA and MEG price movement
- Local producers applied different pricing strategy to the export market
- Market outlook highly depends on monomer price movements and shift in demand
Despite slight demand changes, sources opined to SSESSMENTS.COM that many uncertainties cast a shadow on China PET market outlook. Following the changes in PTA and MEG prices around CNY200-300/ton ($28-42/ton) higher from last week, offers for local PET Bottle cargoes were also up by CNY200/ton ($28/ton) compared to the same period. Sources stated that buyers showed a mixed response towards the adjustment. Buyers who already made procurement in the previous week were showing a cold response. While for buyers who had not made purchases last week, only procured in small volume with some deals concluded at the initial offer level. To the export market, some sellers decided to increase the offers on FOB basis between $5-20/ton compared to a week earlier. Some others prefer to keep the offers stable on a weekly comparison considering the weak demand from the export market.
SSESSMENTS.COM was told that PET Bottle demand in China is gradually improving as the weather is getting warmer. However, the number of orders is still limited this week as most buyers already make procurement in the previous week. On the production side, Jiangyin Chengold Packaging Materials’ two PET plants with each capacity of 600,000 tons/year, remain shut as of May 6. The company’s PET plants have been shut since April 23 due to technical issues.
Pertaining to the outlook, some market players opined that local PET prices in China still have room to decrease owing to the volatility of feedstock prices. Moreover, demand improvement is considered insignificant and would not be able to support firm prices. Meanwhile, some others prefer to monitor market development further citing unpredictable outlook owing to many uncertainties, SSESSMENTS.COM was told.
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