Saudi major rejected all PP, PE bids in Vietnam, buyers refused purchases

As reported late last week, a major Saudi Arabia producer announced December shipments offers to Vietnam with $70/ton hike on HDPE film while cutting LLDPE and homo-PP by $10-20/ton month on month. The producer’s price list stand at $1300/ton for HDPE film, $1170-1190/ton for LLDPE film and $1170/ton for homo-PP, all based on CIV Vietnam, LC AS term.

Well aware of the general tight supply condition, Vietnamese buyers are relatively restrained in placing bids, asking for $10-20/ton discounts to close deals, yet all bids are rejected at the moment as the supplier insists to close deal at the offered levels. “The main support is the lack of cargoes availability due to previous maintenance shutdown from October to November. Our customers are now shied away, indicating the lack of interest in making purchases.”

In fact, instead of raising bid levels, most buyers decided to withdraw to the sideline, hoping that strong resistance would result in price reduction. A local trader added, “At the meantime, we are discussing with other suppliers to close deals. Our main concern is the arrival time that might fall into the low point during early February, when buyers are off for Lunar New Year.”

“For us, we decided to skip purchases this month. HDPE film seems to have over priced. We think market might head for stabilisation in the coming month. We have comfortable inventories until February,” a HDPE bag maker said.