Most Southeast Asian PP Players Predicted Better Market Condition After Festive Season
- Thailand local market showed stiff resistance towards this week’s price adjustments
- Thai PP market will be short of supply in June due to maintenance shutdown at a producer’s plants
- Overall demand is expected to improve after Eid-Al-Fitr holiday
Market sources updated SSESSMENTS.COM that PP offers in Thailand increased significantly this week. Two Thai PP producers decided to adjust their offers up by THB1,000/ton ($31/ton), for both film and non-film grades. The reason behind the simultaneous rising was the tight supply, as cited by the producers. In Malaysia and the Philippines, local PP offers captured stable. All changes compared to last week. For the export market, a Thai PP producer adjusted the prices up by $30/ton for PP Homo Raffia and $10/ton for PP Homo Injection to the Vietnam market, resulting in prices above $900/ton-level. With all the upward adjustment made by Thai producers while sales for end products remain slow for both local and export markets, converters are reluctant to place orders and choose to wait until the prices to retreat in the upcoming week. Detailed information for Indonesia and Vietnam market is available in the WeeklySSESSMENTS of respective countries.
PP demand in Southeast Asia this week is reportedly improving. In Malaysia, the improvements are seen from the beginning of the month as most converters restarted the production and restocked up their inventory. Meanwhile, in Thailand, the improvements are still not noticeable despite the fact that the government had officially announced permits for the department stores to be reopened since Sunday, May 17, with health precautions such as temperature checks and QR codes for visitor’s identifications. SSESSMENTS.COM was told that many of Thailand's residents are still not confident to go out as the fear of contracting the diseases are looming and also the complicated process one should go through when visiting public places is holding people back. On the supply front, IRPC will conduct maintenance shutdown at its No. 3 PP line with a capacity of 225,000 tons/year for 15 days starting from June 12. Afterwards, the producer will shut its No. 4 PP line with a capacity of 160,000 tons/year for 30 days.
For the outlook, the majority of market players contacted by SSESSMENTS.COM voiced out the same sentiment. Market condition is most likely getting better after Eid-Al-Fitr holiday, and more improvements are expected to be seen around June since economic activities are slowly getting back to normal.
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