Southeast Asia PS Market Muted In Holiday Shortened Week, Except Vietnam
- Eid Al-Fitr and upcoming long weekend holiday suppresses market activities
- Converters in Malaysia have not fully resumed operation as demand for end products remain weak
- Easing of lockdown fails to boost PS pricing outlook
In the week starting May 25, Southeast Asia PS market remains muted in the holiday-shortened week, except Vietnam. As for prices, SSESSMENTS.COM was informed that in Indonesia, offers for local GPPS Injection and HIPS Injection via traders were unchanged compared to last week. From the import market, offers for GPPS Injection from Taiwan to Vietnam surfaced at $850/ton on LC at sight, CIF Vietnam main port basis. Compared to data collected by SSESSMENTS.COM last week, the offers were $5/ton lower. Deals for HIPS Injection of the same origin were concluded between $930-940/ton with the same payment and delivery terms via traders as market talks have it that direct offers from a Taiwanese producer were too high. Meanwhile, in Malaysia, a local trader has no offers this week as there were no inquiries from customers.
Market sources reported to SSESSMENTS.COM that trading activities across the region were mostly flat due to Eid Al-Fitr holiday. Malaysia market was closed for the first two days of the week, the Philippines was also on a holiday on Monday, May 25 while in Indonesia, despite the government postponed holidays for the country’s major festival celebration towards the end of the year, quite a number of companies halted operations for Eid Al-Fitr. Additionally, Indonesia will also be observing another national holiday on June 1. Contrastingly, in Vietnam trading activities are more active now after the country eases nationwide Coronavirus lockdown. As a result, demand for PS in Vietnam is performing better than the rest of the countries in the region. On the supply front, no issues reported at the time of publication.
Looking ahead, the majority of market players stated to SSESSMENTS.COM that the outlook for PS would remain relatively stable. One of the reasons backing the statement is styrene prices. In the past week, styrene monomer prices traded between $600-620/ton on FOB Korea, with not much volatility reported. At the same time, several market players hesitate whether demand for PS end-products will pick-up soon due to economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. Despite more countries begin to lift lockdown measures, converters are still not back to full operating rate, therefore the digestion for raw materials remains slow.
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