Malaysian PP plunged in Indonesia; PE tracked stable to softer trend

Joining a wave of new price announcements, a Malaysian producer reportedly slashes December PP shipment offers to Indonesia while keeping PE offers mostly unchanged from the previous month, except for the case of HDPE blow moulding and HDPE pipe. 

The producer’s latest price list and changes month on month are shown in the following table:

Once again, the downward price adjustments for PP fail to stoke any immediate purchasing interest. According to market sources, the homo-PP cargoes from the maker lack competitiveness against other non-dutiable cargoes, i.e. Vietnamese materials and locally held imported parcels.

“Some regular customers might have to restock, but we have no plan to accept these levels. The finished goods market is cutthroat at the moment, hence, we must source lower-cost cargoes to protect the bottom line,” a woven bag manufacturer commented.

In the local market, forward-selling of locally imported homo-PP injection from Malaysia is available at IDR 15,100,000/ton excluding VAT ($975/ton), while homo-PP yarn is at IDR 15,400,000/ton excluding VAT ($1,000/ton), FD Indonesia, cash equivalent.

In the PE sector, Indonesian buyers have eschewed import materials for weeks thanks to the ready presence of more attractive domestic materials. Many manufacturers in the PE packaging sector are operating at about 50% capacity due to a lack of finished goods orders, further elevated concerns over raw material costs.