Southeast Asian producer lifted homo-PP offers to Indonesia

As demand in nearby China market continue to show signs of improvement, several Southeast Asian producers decided to implement small to moderate hike on homo-PP cargoes to Indonesia this week in spite of delicate buying interest.

Vietnamese homo-PP inched $10-20/ton up from last week, reaching $1170-1180/ton CIF Indonesia, LC AS term. Couple of deals have been concluded at small discount, however it does not appear that buyers are aggressive in scouting for cargoes. A trader commented, “Our offers are relatively competitive and with no inventories pressure, we think market is set to persist on the firming trend in the coming month.”

Meanwhile, offers for Philippines homo-PP witness larger hike of $40/ton week on week, reaching $1210/ton CIF Indonesia, LC AS term. A trader source added, “Many of our customers are placing price inquiries and we are not having large quantity on hand at the moment.”

Southeast Asian homo-PP supply might remain tight in the coming weeks with Thailand’s SCG unexpectedly shutdown one of its PP lines during the weekend due to electricity issues. The unit might remain off-line until end September. Meanwhile, HMC is working to stabilize production after completing three weeks maintenance shutdown since late July. In addition to continued improving buying interest in China, offers to Indonesia might see additional increases in days to come.