Players in Turkey: PP’s bullish run is sturdier than other polymers

Turkey’s polymer markets have been on a mostly firming trend since around mid-November, supported by higher import prices and hike announcements from the domestic producers. The main triggers behind the increasing trend were higher upstream costs and reduced allocations from regular supply sources amidst poor netbacks compared to other global markets.

Although the firming trend has been mostly in place for all polymers, many players agreed that PP displayed a better performance with respect to others in terms of demand and the acceptability of sellers’ hike requests. “Not only stronger demand compared to PE and PVC but also tight prompt supplies for import and local cargos paved the way for higher done deals for PP in December,” both sellers and buyers commented.

“This month, PP buyers had to pay increases on their deals with offers gaining ground almost on a daily basis in some cases as restricted supplies from Iran and the Middle East dominated the market, outshining the year-end lull,” stated a manufacturer.

Meanwhile, PE seems to be lagging behind PP as sellers’ hike attempts surrendered to generally muted activity, except for HDPE grades, for which supply is limited. Distributors admitted, “For PVC, buying interest has given limited response to rising offers so far owing to the previous purchases that were completed in the last couple of weeks. PS sellers trimmed their initial drastic hikes amidst volatile styrene costs, on another note. Among all, PP registered more solid increases month over month.”