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The Asian polyolefin market remains largely stable a day after the American elected the new president. There is technically no drastic movement in term of both pricing and trading activities observed at the time this report is published, however, many are pointing to longer term impact, warning about possible policies change, especially on trade agreements.

A Chinese trader informed, “Market is calmer since earlier this week and we see minimal opportunities to lift prices at the moment. The immediate impact of Mr. Trump becomes the president of the USA on China’s polyolefin market is not there; however, we are keeping an eye out for any possible policies change in 2017. Chinese exporters to the USA might be affected.”

Discussing this issue with several regional converters, whose end products ranging from shopping bags to household products, and active in exporting to the US market, find no impact on near term orders. A Vietnamese converter informed, “Our export activities to the US remain stable and our end product customers have yet to notify us about any changes in order quantity. We, however concern about longer term prospect as any potential policies change in tariff and trade agreement might generate ramifications on our business.” The sources added that PP suppliers are holding very firm stance on their cargoes claiming lacking of availability, in which they planned to source on need basis only.

Another international producer informed, “We think after the knee-jerk effect that caused energy market soften and stunned the polyolefin market, business shall go on as usual. Meanwhile, we are also talking to our Philippines customers regarding their end products order since Philippines has one of the biggest export exposure to the US in Southeast Asia region.”

Analysts are drawing out number of scenarios for the Asian polyolefin market after the USA presidential election; however, industry participant prefer to wait and see for now.