Asian producers await onset of Lunar New Year Holidays on a cautious note

10-Feb-10

Polymer market in Asia generally tends to slow down ahead of the Chinese New Year, with a chunk of the players preferring to wait in the sidelines. As a result of slower trading activities, the market sentiment traditionally softens, leading buyers to look for some discounts from sellers, as per Chemorbis. The onset of the Holiday week on February 13 is preceded with the impact of the holiday lull in the region, pushing some traders and distributors to offer some discounts to speed up their sales. However, most Asian producers have elected to leave their polymer prices unchanged, because buyers' reluctance will persist despite lower offers as they felt confident that the current downturn in the market would begin to reverse direction once the holiday period ends and demand returns. Besides the expectations of a revival in demand after the holidays, one of the main drivers behind producers’ firm stance is production costs. Despite some decreases seen in Asian spot prices for most monomers in the final week before the Chinese New Year holidays, producers continue finding support from input costs for their prevailing offers. However, if the downtrend continues in crude values, they could compel producers to change their pricing strategies. Under the influence of sluggish demand, current global financial markets, along with fragile crude oil prices, sellers inside China have conceded to small discounts over the week with the hope to sell some material.