Slow End-Product Demand And High Inventory Level Hinder Southeast Asia PET Market To Build Positive Sentiment
- Pricing movement on local and import cargoes
- Flat demand reported on PET resins as a result of weak end-product sales
- For the long term, converters have confidence in the demand outlook
PET Bottle market in Southeast Asia is not getting better this week due to high inventory level and slow demand for end-products. A converter informed SSESSMENTS.COM that offers for PET Bottle from two local producers stood at THB23,500/ton ($760/ton), down by THB500/ton ($16/ton) as compared to offers two weeks ago. From the traders’ side, they opted to continue to roll over local PET Bottle offers at THB24,000-25,000/ton ($776-808/ton). In Malaysia, a converter commented that local PET Bottle offers remain stable from last week, available between MYR3,150-3,250/ton ($736-759/ton). All local offers on cash, FD basis and excluding VAT. From imports, a Malaysian converter received offers from a new Vietnamese PET producer at $700/ton but preferred not to buy the materials citing the quality remains questionable. Amid the report that July shipment offers from China already sold-out in Malaysia, a converter shared to SSESSMENTS.COM that this week's offers are for August shipment with the prices set between $680-700/ton, or between $10-30/ton lower than last week. One of the Chinese PET producers then informed that their offers to Southeast Asia stood at $690/ton, edged down by $5/ton from last week’s level considering the flat buying sentiment. All import offers on LC at sight, CIF Main Port basis. Detailed information for Indonesia and Vietnam market is available in WeeklySESSMENTS of the respective countries.
Demand-wise, market players pointed out the demand for PET resins is traditionally slow during this period of time due to the rainy season, also affected by the slow movement of the finished product market which impacted the converters’ digestion rate for raw materials. Although the producers tried to revise down the offers to build the sentiment, high inventory on customers' sides prevented them from placing orders. SSESSMENTS.COM also noted that market demand for finished products in Malaysia is also lower compared to last week. Malaysian converters pointed out that most of the stocking up activity and backlogs clearance is mostly done last month and the new incoming orders this month is not much. However, the converters will maintain their production rate stable at 80% from normal capacity until the end of this month.
For the outlook, the rainy season still clouded market demand for the time being. While for PET prices, SSESSMENTS.COM was told that it will remain stable in the upcoming week unless there is a notable change in monomer costs or the crude oil prices. However, there is optimism among converters in both Thailand and Malaysia that condition will improve in the longer term. Malaysian converters, especially pining their hope to see the demand to fully recuperate by September in conjunction with several electronic products launching within the month.
