Irregular origins show up in Turkey’s polymer markets

Similar to other major markets across the globe, a bearish trend continued to dominate the polymer markets in Turkey during May. Driven by the continuous losses in energy and upstream markets, initial June prices were announced with sizeable drops to the country. Amidst globally subdued demand, Turkey saw some irregular origins in the PP, PVC and PE markets.

In the PP market, Iranian cargoes found their way to Turkey during the whole past month and formed a competitive edge with respect to prices for Saudi Arabian and Indian materials and West European offers which faced a disadvantage because of the higher euro/dollar parity. However, Iranian origin had emerged only randomly in the first months of 2012. Offers for Iranian PP raffia and fibre on CPT basis came gradually down during the period. At the end of May, their prices indicated large decreases of $190/ton for raffia and $240/ton for fibre when compared to the first week of the month and stood at the low end of the price ranges.

Another irregular PP origin showed up at the end of last week, with a Middle Eastern producer offering United Arab Emirates raffia to the import market. A source from the producer mentioned, “The market is very quiet for now and we are receiving very few inquiries from our customers. We are not optimistic about our sales over the short term and we are watching the market to see when prices might reach the bottom.” The same producer announced their June PP raffia prices to Egypt with a $140/ton decrease from May.

In the PVC market, after appearing only in early February this year, South Korean materials emerged relatively more frequently starting from April with players reporting this origin almost every week during May. South Korean PVC k67 prices moved down gradually when compared with early May with prices plunging $50-100/ton first and then $10-40/ton in the second half of the month. A trader headquartered in United Arab Emirates said, “We are trying to sell South Korean PVC k67 which is on the way. However, buyers are not interested in this origin.”

Another irregular origin being reported in the PVC market recently was Iranian materials which hadn’t been seen much since the month of January and February. Last week, Iranian PVC k67 prices moved down by $65-80/ton on CPT basis when compared with the levels reported earlier in the month due to lack of vivid demand since most buyers purchased their bare minimum requirements amidst the decreasing trend.

In the PE market, apart from regular Middle Eastern, Iranian and South European origins, an increasing number of West and Central European origins showed up during last month. In the LDPE film market, an irregular West European origin which hadn’t been reported for a long period of time was offered at the end of May from a bonded-warehouse at a competitive level, $35-45/ton below other European prices in that week. As for HDPE, Hungarian materials were traded on CPT basis €20/ton lower week over week while they moved down by up to €40/ton from earlier May.

For import statistics to Turkey, please see:
Import Statistics for Turkey by Country (For members only)

According to ChemOrbis Statistics, imports for Iranian homo-PP reached 16,603 tons in the first four months of 2012. The figure surged to 7,587 tons in April from 379 tons in January. As for South Korean PVC, Turkey imported 1,860 tons so far this year, with the entire amount entering the country in April. Iranian PVC imports stood at 2,925 tons between January and April. The figure gradually rose to 730 tons in February from 183 tons in January before reaching 1,085 tons in March and coming down to 926 tons in April. The largest amounts of Hungarian HDPE were imported in January with 5,197 tons and in March with 4,224 tons, with the total quantity reaching 11,437 tons so far in 2012.