Vietnam PET Market Suffers From Seasonal Slowdown
- Seasonal slowdown hits demand
- Most downstream factories keep production at lower rates
- Outlook remains pessimistic
SSESSMENTS.COM’s pricing database showed that demand for PET in Vietnam is suffering from the seasonal slowdown, as the rainy season kicked off. In the domestic market, market talks have it that some producers were unable to raise local prices due to sluggish domestic demand from end-users despite the firm crude oil prices in recent weeks. This week, a local producer maintained the offer level stable from last week, available in the market at VND18,800,000/ton ($805/ton) with deals concluded at the initial offer level. Several buyers also received offers for producer’s cargoes via a trader at VND19,000,00/ton ($813/ton), a rollover from a week earlier. In a bid to match its competitors’ prices, another producer adjusted up their offers by VND100,000/ton ($4.2/ton) as compared to the previous week’s level, captured at VND18,800,000/ton ($805/ton). All offers are on cash, FD Ho Chi Minh basis and including 10% VAT. From the import market, a Thai producer maintained their high price quotes from a week earlier. Current import offers from the producer are available at $760/ton, or at $30/ton higher than the offer level available in the previous week. Meanwhile, a Vietnamese PET distributor is offering Indonesia and Thailand origin cargoes at $730/ton. Previously, the distributor received overwhelming requests from buyers for Chinese origin cargoes, thereby having no available spot cargoes to Vietnamese market this week. All import offers are on LC at sight, CIF Vietnam Main Port basis.
Vietnam has eased restrictions on domestic movement to revive a tourism sector as the country successfully flattened their virus infection curves, but with a ban still in place on foreign visitors. Most manufacturers are still facing a huge demand drop from the tourism sector as the industry hardest-hit by the coronavirus outbreak is projected to take a long time to recover. Overall, weaker market conditions are exacerbated by the seasonal slowdown, citing the onset of the rainy season this year. Traditionally, the rainy season is the lean season for bottled-water and beverages sales. Some converters also halted their purchases after securing sufficient volumes in the past few weeks. Amid weak end-users demand for finished products, SSESSMENTS.COM was informed that most downstream factories are running at a reduced capacity of between 50-70% from the normal output.
For the outlook, the majority of market participants in Vietnam voiced out to SSESSMENTS.COM that there would be a room for import PET prices to increase further but within a limited range since the pace of the market recovery is slow.
