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There are no trading activities in China today as players are away for the mid-Autumn Festival holidays. Market shall resume by next Monday, 19 September 2016.

In Southeast Asia, there are very limited trading activities on the last trading of the week with Malaysia market is off for a National holiday. Most of the deals for PP were concluded in the previous trading session while others are holding very firm on their prices. A major Saudi Arabia offer homo-PP to Indonesia at $1030/ton CIF, LC AS term, however, buyers are not showing strong interest in replenishing cargoes. A trader commented, “Our supplier is hold very firm stance on their cargoes, refusing to give any discounts from initial prices. Local market is quiet and we did not proceed with purchases since we are still holding comfortable stock on hand. It is really difficult to gauge the likely market direction in the coming weeks, and we only hope a pick up in demand in China would give Southeast Asia some spillover effects.”

Meanwhile, Vietnam market is also very calm as the week ended with most major suppliers claimed sold out available allocation for this week. Domestic market is not as active as it is in the import ground. A trader in the country explained, “Some players are speculating firmer trend in the near term due to the implementation of the new import duties rate, therefore there are still purchasing activities in the import market. Domestic demand is on the other hand, very sluggish. In fact, we have not been able to firm up prices despite higher offers from overseas suppliers. Some traders with cash-flow issues are giving larger than usual discount, putting even more pressure on other domestic sellers. We hope demand would improve in the coming week.”

The regional PE market also sees little movement and suppliers are planning for the fresh offers in the coming week. A Middle Eastern producer informed, “Market is rather quiet this week and we did not offer our new prices. We prefer to monitor new development in the near-by China market after the holidays before setting our October delivery offers.”

Vietnamese players reported seeing a visible improvement in local supply for all PE film grades, which is keeping seller’s effort to increase prices at bay. It is also reported that several domestic traders are selling below market prices in bearish expectation for the near term outlook. One of the sources commented, “Local prices are in chaos. We are still maintaining our offers unchanged from last week though we have not been able to achieve many sales. We think market is very near to the peak, however, firm stance from overseas supplier would help to psychologically reassure the market.”