Chinese PET inched higher in local and export markets

Players reported that Chinese suppliers are attempting to lift their PET offers in both local and export market despite mediocre demand condition from the beverage sector.

In fact, local PET prices in China firmed up CNY200/ton ($29/ton) to reach CNY ‎7000-7200/ton ($881-906/ton without VAT). A PET bottle manufacturer informed, “We think the increase is partially due to the weakening of the Chinese Yuan. Demand for our end product has yet to see any improvement and we have been operating at lower rate throughout the past quarter. We hope orders for Chinese New Year would come soon, until then we prefer not to keep high inventories.”

A trader, whose export offers stand at $880/ton FOB China LC AS term informed, “Respond from Southeast Asian customers, especially from Indonesia, is not very good. The fact that Indonesian government has initiated antidumping investigation on import PET from China has kept many Chinese suppliers at bay. However, firm upstream costs do provide some support.”

Sources added that demand from another sector – polyester is healthy, which encouraged suppliers to implement increases on their cargoes. Another trader commented, “It is winter season with Christmas and Lunar New Year orders coming in; we think the PET market would remain more of stable to firmer trend in the near term with the support from polyester sector.”

Export PET from China at the moment stands at $865-880/ton FOB China, LC AS term.