Vietnamese Market Players: Buyers Still Show Resistance Towards Current PP Prices
- Import Thai PP Homo Injection to Vietnam touching a new threshold level
- Buyers are not interested in making procurements due to sufficient inventory
- PP demand will slow down further in the upcoming weeks due to the rainy season
Vietnamese market players stated to SESSMENTS.COM that buyers are still showing resistance towards current PP prices. On the week commencing June 8, local and import PP prices captured on an uptrend. From the domestic market, PP Homo Raffia offers for the end of June delivery from a local producer stand at VND24,500,000/ton ($1,052/ton) on cash, FD Haiphong basis and including 10% VAT. While from the trader’s end, offers for PP Homo Raffia increased between VND500,000-1,000,000/ton ($21-43/ton) compared to last week. However, a local trader doubted that buyers would accept such a level.
In the import market, a Thai PP producer offering PP Homo Injection at $1,000/ton, or $50/ton higher than last week's level citing the allocation is limited. At the time of publication, no deals concluded as buyers were giving cold responses towards these offers. Likewise, offers for Saudi PP Homo Injection and PP Homo Raffia via a trader moved up by $60/ton compared to the same period. However, SSESSMENTS.COM’s pricing database showed that deals for these cargoes were achieved at $10-20/ton lower than the initial offers at $880-890/ton. While for PP Homo Film, July shipment offers for South Korean cargoes stand at $980/ton. All import offers are on LC at sight, CIF Vietnam Main Port basis.
PP demand in Vietnam remains on a soft note as buyers still show resistance towards the higher prices. On top of that, with sufficient inventory on hand, most buyers are not interested in making procurements and prefer to monitor market movements further. On the supply front, South Korea’s Lotte Chemical does not have any allocation for PP Homo Raffia to Vietnam market due to the maintenance shutdown, SSESSMENTS.COM was told.
In terms of pricing, despite the slow demand, PP prices are predicted to be stable to firmer as feedstock prices continue to rally, as stated to SSESSMENTS.COM. On the other hand, Vietnamese market players believed that PP demand will slow down further in the upcoming weeks due to the rainy season in the Northern area of the country.
