Southeast Asian Market Players Wait For The Upcoming PVC Offers, Shared Foggy Outlook Ahead
- Rumour has it that a Thai producer has announced June delivery offers with an adjustment
- Demand for PVC resins remains sluggish despite slight improvement in end-products sales
- Players foresee foggy outlook for Southeast Asia PVC market in the near future
As SSESSMENTS.COM noted, there are still no local fresh PVC offers released in the Southeast Asia market, hence, most players are currently waiting for the upcoming offers. In Thailand, a manufacturer stated that June delivery offers from Thai PVC producers have yet to be released so far. A producer indicates that the upcoming offers will likely be adjusted up although the exact prices could not be ascertained yet. However, market talks have it that one of the local PVC producers has already released their offers for June delivery, with an upward adjustment of THB1,500/ton ($47/ton) following the international prices. Likewise, in the Philippines, there are no local PVC offers available in the domestic market at the moment as the two local producers have yet to start offering again after being absent for quite some time due to lockdown. In the import market, a Malaysian trader said that a Thai PVC producer is no longer offering materials this week as they already sold out all allocation for June shipment in the previous week. This month, import cargoes of Southeast Asia origin, such as Thailand and Indonesia, were quite salable in the Malaysia market citing pretty competitive prices compared to Chinese cargoes. Additionally, a trader based in Singapore has also sold out June allocation for Indonesian and Japanese PVC cargoes since last week. Initially, the trader allocated 8,000 tons of PVC cargoes, but because of the good response, the amount was stretched to 12,000 tons. Detailed information for Indonesia and Vietnam market is available in WeeklySSESSMENTS of the respective countries.
By and large, PVC demand within the Southeast Asia market remains sluggish despite slight improvement observed in several end-products demand, particularly in Malaysia. Some hose manufacturers in Malaysia informed that demand for their end-products is gradually increasing, currently about 80% from normal demand. Following the sales improvement, those manufacturers increased production rate to 70-80% from normal capacity. In Thailand, a manufacturer lamented that demand for automotive spare parts is currently low at around 25-30% from their total sales before the outbreak. Similarly for PVC compound and sheet, as well as PVC shoe, the demand also remained slow this week. Due to this, most factories in Thailand keep the running rate at 50% from normal capacity. On the supply side, no significant issues reported to SSESSMENTS.COM this week.
The majority of Southeast Asian market players contacted by SSESSMENTS.COM voiced out that the outlook for the PVC market in the days to come is still blurry. Most players prefer to wait on the sidelines this week to monitor the market further. In Thailand, some converters opined that buyers might be rather hard accepting higher prices from local producers considering slow demand for finished products. While in Malaysia, the market outlook is still clouded by the Coronavirus outbreak.
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