Regional, overseas producers lower October PP prices to SE Asia

Players in Southeast Asia report that regional and overseas producers have implemented decreases on their October shipment PP prices to the region, as per ChemOrbis. Weaker upstream costs and bearish sentiment in the nearby Chinese market were cited among the main reasons behind sellers’ downward adjustments, while regional demand was also said to be less than encouraging. A Saudi Arabian producer has reduced October prices for homo-PP by US$20/ton while rolling over their offers for PP block copolymer. “Our plant is experiencing some technical difficulties, so we are not feeling much sales pressure at the moment. We will try to maintain a firm stance on our prices, even though we expect to meet some resistance from buyers,” a producer source commented. A converter in Vietnam said that they received October prices from another Saudi Arabian supplier with a US$20/ton monthly decrease. “We do not find these new offers to be attractive as spot propylene prices are weakening and we believe that the market will fall at least another US$20/ton before stabilizing,” the buyer stated. Another Vietnamese converter reported purchasing material from the same producer with an additional US$5/ton discount after negotiations. Meanwhile, a Southeast Asian major announced October prices with US$30-40/ton decreases for most PP grades. “We are focused more on the Southeast Asian market for October since we believe that the upcoming National Day holidays will dampen buying interest from China. Our PP availability is sufficient and we feel that prices may face some additional downward pressure in the weeks ahead,” a producer source commented. A trader offering on behalf of another Southeast Asian producer said that their supplier lowered their homo-PP prices by US$40/ton for October while leaving their PP copolymer prices stable. “We had been hoping that plant issues in the Middle East would keep supplies tight and prevent prices from declining for October, but we had to reduce our homo-PP prices for the month in line with other sellers’ price reductions,” the trader reported. An Indian producer implemented a price decrease of US$15-20/ton on their raffia offers to Southeast Asia for October, according to ChemOrbis. “We have a limited allocation as we are facing some plant issues in India while demand is fairly strong in the local market, so we are not under pressure to export. We are only able to supply materials to our regular customers in SEA while we are only offering around 30% of our normal allocations to China. We plan to stand firm on our new offer levels given our limited supplies,” a producer source stated.