PP offers lowered to Asia by producers

Several PP producers announced lower offers to the Asian market at the start of the week, indicating that at least the higher end of the Asian PP market seems set to slide again after holding largely steady during the past week. As per Chemorbis, persistent lack of buying interest along with bearish market sentiments is the main reasons for the price cuts. A major Southeast Asian producer announced an additional price reduction of ten dollars on July offers for homo-PP to encourage greater sales. The producer has reduced July offers by a cumulative total of US$140-150/ton from late June offer levels in three separate price reductions. A global producer announced July offers for Middle Eastern homo-PP to Southeast Asia with decreases of US$90/ton from their June offer levels, mainly due to bearish market sentiment. Despite acknowledging buying interest remains weak, the producer is confident to meet sales targets for the coming month as their new offer levels are competitive when compared with other producers’ offer levels. Producers in Indonesia announced price reductions of US$50/ton on their offers to the local market this week to remain competitive with the prevailing import price level, with distributors in the country are in readiness to offer additional US$10-15/ton discounts from the producer price level for buyers placing firm bids. In Thailand, a distributor predicted that offers for domestic homo-PP would be reduced by THB1000/ton (US$31/ton) this week in accordance with falling prices for other polymers. Weakening prices in other polymer markets also weighed down sentiment in China’s local PP market, with distributors commenting that PP prices cannot sustain a steady trend given the rapid erosion seen in PE prices. Chinese producers announced price cuts of CNY100-450/ton (US$15-66/ton) on their offers for homo-PP on Monday in an effort to pare down their stocks before the month ends, commenting that buyers were not tempted back to the market yesterday despite the significant rise in crude oil prices over the weekend. In China’s import market, a global producer announced July offers for Middle Eastern homo-PP with price declines of US$60-80/ton from their June done deal levels, managing to conclude a few deals at their new price levels. Another global producer announced July offers for Singaporean homo-PP US$30-50/ton lower than June done deal levels. The producer’s new offers for Singaporean homo-PP, which is not assessed customs duty in China, stand equal to the high end of last week’s range for dutiable origins, suggesting that sellers offering at the higher end of the range for dutiable material will find themselves pressured to reduce their own prices in turn in order to retain their competitiveness.