November expectations voiced in the European PET market

27-Oct-15

In Europe, late October PET deals were concluded mainly with rollovers from September after many sellers withdrew their hike requests towards the end of the month as reported on www.ChemOrbis.com. Players are now voicing their expectations for November while waiting for the monomer contracts to settle. A South European producer concluded their October PET deals with increases of €20-30/ton from September. A producer source reported, “Our stocks were limited this month as one of our plants was shut for a planned turnaround. For November, we do not project notable changes. PET prices might stabilize at the current levels.” In Italy, a distributor sold South European PET almost with rollovers from September after asking for slight hikes of €10/ton at the beginning of October as per ChemOrbis pricing service. According to the distributor, the market didn’t absorb increases as limited supply was counterbalanced by slow demand. For November, he doesn’t expect to see significant changes in feedstock costs so he thinks that PET prices will track a trend similar to this month. A packaging producer bought West European PET mainly with rollovers from last month and said that he expects to see largely stable prices in November. A converter in Germany, who received October PET offers with increases of €15-20/ton, elected to wait until the end of the month when he expected to obtain mostly rollovers from September. “Supply is limited due to planned maintenance shutdowns in the region, but demand is rather weak. We think that PET prices will remain stable until the end of the year,” the buyer commented. Another converter in Belgium added, “Producers sought to issue hikes of €20-30/ton at the beginning of October, citing some turnarounds, which led to limited availability. However, we are negotiating to close our October deals with rollovers given weak demand. We expect to see stable prices next month.”