Indonesia PET market moves higher on costs and demand factors

Couple of Chinese suppliers have announced fresh PET bottle offers to Indonesia and up to this moment, the new price list sees an average increased of $40/ton from last week to $1150-1160/ton CIF Indonesia, LC AS term.

The increase is attributed to the firming upstream PTA and MEG costs in recent days, however, the continuous replenishment activities play a major part in fuelling in the uptrend. I fact, most Chinese suppliers have already sold out March shipment allocation and cargoes offered at the moment are meant for April to May delivery.

“We are free from any inventories pressure at the moment. Most bottled water manufacturer is operating at 90% capacity, some are higher. Market is entering the high demand season,” a Chinese trader reported.

It appears that Indonesian buyers are speeding up cargoes off-take activities in preparation for the Ramadan season. In the local market, spot offers see IDR500,000/ton ($35/ton) higher from last week to IDR18,000,000/ton ($1269/ton) without VAT, FD Indonesia, cash term.

“Market started having rumor on the implementation of the antidumping duties on import PET bottle from China. Although the government might not introduce any new tax ahead of the election, buyers might still prefer to source from the local market to avoid any risk,” a buyer added.