Indonesian Market Players Express Mixed Outlook For PP Prices, Finished Product Demand Shifted Slightly
- Significant adjustment captured on import PP cargoes of Middle East origin on monthly comparison
- Finished product demand has slightly picked up
- Market players express a mixed outlook for PP prices
Indonesian market players voiced out different opinions regarding PP pricing outlook in the near term. As informed to SSESSMENTS.COM, on the week commencing July 6, the leading polyolefins producer in the country decided to roll over PP offers except for PP Homo Film, increased by IDR140,000/ton ($10/ton) compared to the price list announced on July 3. Meanwhile, a distributor adjusted up offers for PP Homo Raffia and PP Homo Injection by IDR400,000/ton ($28/ton), while for PP Homo Film, the offers from the distributor moved up by IDR500,000/ton ($35/ton) compared to last week’s level. From the traders’ end, offers for PP Homo Raffia and PP Homo Injection remained stable from last week citing that PP offers from the company’s end have been firm since a week earlier. Deals for these cargoes concluded at IDR200,000-300,000/ton ($14-21/ton) lower than the initial offers at IDR15,200,000-15,300,000/ton ($1,053-1,060/ton) on 30 Days credit term, FD Indonesia basis and excluding 10% VAT. Another trader increased offers for PP Homo Film by IDR300,000/ton ($21/ton) due to the outage at one of Indonesian PP producers plant.
For imports, offers for PP Homo Injection from a South Korean producer from a global trading house are available at $1,000/ton, no comparison as the producer did not regularly give offers every month. A converter received offers for Emirati PP Homo Raffia and PP Homo Film at $100/ton higher on a monthly comparison and purchased PP Homo Film cargoes at $20/ton lower than the initial offers at $960/ton, while deals for PP Homo Raffia achieved at the same level to the initial offers at $950/ton. On the contrary, Indian and Middle Eastern producers lowered PP Homo raffia decreased by $10/ton compared to last week; as such, a trader in Indonesia decided to slash offers to customers by the same amount. For other grades, SSESSMENTS.COM’s pricing database showed that offers for Singaporean and South Korean PP Block Copolymer remain stable from last week. All offers are on LC at sight, CIF Indonesia Main Port basis.
Overall PP demand in Indonesia remains on a soft note this week. Converters and manufacturers prefer to halt procurements or only purchase on a hand-to-mouth basis on the back of sufficient inventory. However, in Medan, demand for PP Homo raffia from a distributor’s end is healthy, as supply in the mentioned city is quite tight. Market sources stated that finished product demand has slightly picked up, especially for the woven bag and food packaging sector. On the supply side, limited PP supply on traders’ end persists, as reported to SSESSMENTS.COM.
Looking ahead, some market players opined that local PP prices would not increase further and might be lower in the near term considering slow finished product demand coupled with no supply issue from local producers’ end. While the rest believed that despite the slow demand, local PP prices will be stable to firmer following the uptrend in feedstock prices, as stated to SSESSMENTS.COM.
