Print

International and domestic suppliers started announcing fresh offers to Indonesia this week mostly at stable to softer levels compared to the pre-holiday period. However, purchasing power appears to be weak as buyers are watching out for the demand condition in China before making decision.

Import offers for Philippines homo-PP drop $10-20/ton from beginning of the week to $1300/ton CIF Indonesia, LC AS term at the time this report is published, with a trader commented, “It is very difficult to attract buying interest at the moment. Even local sellers are slashing prices, hence we might wait for a while before making further decision.”

In domestic ground, while major producer maintains price list unchanged week on week, traders are cutting offers for both HDPE and LLDPE film by IDR500,000/ton ($37/ton) to IDR22,000,000/ton ($1618/ton) and IDR19,000,000/ton ($1397/ton) respectively, all based on FD Indonesia, without VAT, cash term.

Sources are strongly concerned over government’s announcement on the implementation of excise tax on plastic bags, which might affect the industry negatively. “At the meantime, we are monitoring the demand condition in neighbouring markets such as Vietnam and China before entering new deals,” a converter said.

Trading activities in Indonesia are expected to remain slow for the remaining of the week, and further discounts might emerge in the distribution market as a result of persistent weak demand, players said.