Vietnamese players: Import homo-PP might be nearing the peak

After a brief drop in import homo-PP offers to Vietnam that triggered strong buying interest in the country couple of weeks ago, most international suppliers have lifted prices soon after achieving satisfactory sales results. However, it appears that market has entered the stabilized condition and players here believed that room for further price hike is rather limited.

One of the most important factor support such claim is the widely available of Chinese material at competitive prices. A converter purchase regular Chinese homo-PP yarn at $1090/ton CIF Vietnam, LC AS term said, “Compared to other dutiable cargoes, we think this price is rather competitive. Even coal-based homo-PP is widely available at the moment. We think this could lock the market from jumping too significantly in the near term.”

There are very limited offers from Middle Eastern suppliers while South Korean and Indian sellers are very firm, refusing to enter price negotiation at the moment. An Indian producer offered at $1120/ton CIF Vietnam in the previous week said, “Yet, we are unable to conclude any deal at this price. Buyers are resisting the latest hike and we are monitoring further development before deploying any adjustment if needed.”

A number of buyers think that the PP market might be nearing the peak given softer propylene costs and general weak sentiment in other key importing countries. “Vietnam market seems more active than others in recent weeks. On the other hand, domestic ground has stagnated, which could offer limited opportunity for import material to increase drastically.”

Import offers to Vietnam by the week ending 14 April 2017 stood at $1090-1150/ton CIF Vietnam, LC AS term.