Southeast Asian Market Players Sceptic About The Sustainability Of Current PE Price Trend
- Some buyers showed resistance toward the current PE offers
- Thailand’s PTT to shut PE plants for maintenance
- Players believe that the current PE price trend will not sustain
Southeast Asian market players told SSESSMENTS.COM that they are sceptical about the sustainability of the current PE price trend. On the week starting May 25, local and import PE offers within the Southeast Asia market recorded stable to firmer. In Malaysia and the Philippines, local offers for PE across different grades remained stable from last week. While in Thailand, local offers for HDPE Film, LDPE Film and LLDPE Film C4 from a Thai PE producer were hiked by THB500/ton ($15/ton) on a weekly comparison as supported by supply shortage from the producer’s end. Responding to the offers, most buyers showed cold responses, citing that last week, they were already on panic buying due to firmer crude oil prices. Besides, last week’s deals were concluded way lower than this week’s offers. Detailed information for Vietnam market is available here.
In the import market, offers for Qatari HDPE Film to Malaysia increased by $10/ton on the high-end and by $30/ton on the low-end of the price range. Likewise, offers for Qatari LLDPE Film C4 were stable to firmer by $10/ton on the low-end of the price range. While LDPE Film offers of Qatar origin captured stable. All compared to last week’s levels. Meanwhile, a converter reported receiving June shipment offers for LLDPE Film C4 from a Saudi producer at $750/ton on LC at sight, CIF Malaysia Main Port basis, or $20/ton higher compared to May shipment offers. The converter managed to conclude deals at $10/ton lower than the initial offer level. In Thailand, deals for Middle Eastern HDPE Film and LLDPE Film C4 cargoes closed at $30/ton higher than last month’s deals. While to the Philippines market, June shipment offers for LLDPE Film C4 of Saudi origin emerged with an increment of $40/ton on a monthly comparison. The prices were deemed too high and unworkable considering the 3% customs duty, the converter commented to SSESSMENTS.COM. Additionally, a Philippines converter also received import mLLDPE C6 offers of Singapore origin at $30/ton higher compared to a fortnight ago.
As reported to SSESSMENTS.COM, the overall demand in the Southeast Asia market remains slow this week. In Thailand, the market this week is rather flat since most buyers were already making purchases last week. On the other side, a trader stated that demand for PE resins is still coming in as supported by healthy sales for flexible packaging. In the Philippines, the market is still muted amid lockdown, some factories are running production at below 50% from the normal rate. On the plant news, Thailand’s PTT Public Company Ltd reportedly will conduct maintenance shutdown at its 300,000 tons/year LDPE plant and 400,000 tons/year LLDPE plant for 20-30 days. The maintenance at both plants will likely be done upon the completion of maintenance at the producer’s 300,000 tons/year HDPE plant that started within this week.
Looking ahead, the majority of Southeast Asian market players are unsure about the sustainability of the current uptrend in PE prices, citing that the uptrend is only caused by the firm energy market and feedstock prices. Most players opined to SSESSMENTS.COM that high prices could only be accepted if the demand is improving significantly. Meanwhile, the current state of demand in the region is still limping due to the impact of Coronavirus pandemic and expected to remain stagnant in the upcoming weeks. As such, most players believe that PE prices will likely move down in June.
Click below to view related stories and content on PE:
WeeklySSESSMENTS: SEA PE Prices Week Starting May 18
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PlantsSSESSMENTS: Thailand's PTT To Shut PE Plants For Maintenance Shutdown
