Local PP markets back to late September levels in Turkey

Turkey’s locally-held PP markets continued to see discounts for the second successive week under the shadow of persistently slow demand. The new record in the USD/lira parity, which breached the 11 mark following further interest cut from the Central Bank, kept activity at a standstill. The American dollar has soared by 50% against the Turkish lira since the beginning of 2021.

Local offers have lost around 3% since November started

The overall local PP raffia range was assessed $20-40/ton lower from last week at $2210-2280/ton ex-warehouse Turkey, inc VAT. Local PPBC inj. offers dropped by $30/ton at $2320-2370/ton with the same terms.



The total decline has reached $80/ton (slightly more than 3%) both for PP raffia and PPBC injection since November started, according to the weekly average data from ChemOrbis. The locally-held PP raffia market currently carries a premium of around $100/ton over the import market, data further suggested.

Players see further price cuts in sight

The outlook remains on the weak side heading to the last month of the year based on the unpromising demand outlook and bearish projections for imports. A sack maker opined, “Poor demand will bring additional drops for PP. Supply-demand balance will determine to what extent prices will retreat.”

The market has been struggling due to shipping delays from the Middle East since the end of this summer. Yet, supply woes have lost their prominence as tepid demand loomed large since October.

Downstream activities came to a stalemate as converters failed to set prices of their finished products due to highly volatile parity at a time when the inflationary environment weighed on trading. The previously surging freight rates, utility costs and inflated resin prices have already weighed on PP consumption, not to mention the sharp depreciation of the lira.