Lockdown Eased, Southeast Asian PET Market Needs Some Time To Recover
- Local PET prices in Southeast Asia showed the same trend
- No significant improvement in demand for PET Bottle despite lockdown relaxation
- PET market in the region needs some time to recover
Despite lockdown in some countries eased, Southeast Asian PET market needs some time to recover, sources told SSESSMENTS.COM. On the week commencing May 4, local PET prices in the Southeast Asia market were in a downtrend. In Thailand, a local trader reported reducing the offers for local PET Bottle cargoes by THB500/ton ($15/ton) as compared to last week. In Malaysia, offers for local PET Bottle are available between MYR3,100-3,300/ton ($717-764/ton) on cash, FD Malaysia basis, and excluding 6% SST. The current price range is lower between MYR50-150/ton ($12-35/ton) from last week’s level. In the import market, Chinese PET Bottle cargoes reported stable over the week, at $680/ton to the Philippines market and $700/ton to Thailand market, all on LC at sight, CIF main ports basis. However, as local PET prices in the Southeast Asia market remain low, most buyers voiced out buy ideas between $20-50/ton lower than the initial offers.
The overall demand for PET Bottle within the Southeast Asia market remains sluggish despite lockdown relaxation in some countries, such as Malaysia and Philippines. Even though some businesses have started to re-open, demand for the end products remains dull. As such, middlemen prefer to monitor the downstream market first before procuring PET Bottle resins. On the production sector, sources in Malaysia told SSESSMENTS.COM that some converters in the country found that the safety rules to run production at the maximum rate is quite burdening. As such, most converters prefer to run at a reduced capacity.
For the outlook, most of the Southeast Asian market players stated that the PET market in the region will need some time to recover after the lockdown eased. At this time, market participants would be very cautious in procuring materials as a lot of uncertainties linger, as stated to SSESSMENTS.COM.
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