Indian homo-PP yarn slipped below $1200/ton in China

Import homo-PP to China has been on a downtrend after hitting the all-time high this year during the second week of October. Market since then has been waiting for prices to breach below the $1200/ton threshold, and as expected, traders finally agree to open new offers for Indian cargoes at $1190-1200/ton CFR China term.

“Customers would never stop negotiating. We received bids at as low as $1170/ton CFR China, which we are unable to accept,” a trader reported.

Although South Korean cargoes have been traded at the range $1180-1190/ton over the past weeks, sources are not taking this as a benchmark as the producer is pre-marketing the new materials. “Therefore, regular Indian cargoes breach below the threshold is a new thing here. Traders are just losing confidence in the near to medium term outlook. We plan to bid aggressively,” a rigid packaging converter added.

The escalated trade war between China and the USA is casting more doubt on the market outlook in the first quarter of 2019, from which many buyers expressed the intention to remain conservative when it comes to large purchases. In the meantime, new supplies from outside of China are easing the concern over the tightened availability in the local market due to stringent environmental control.