Tepid demand for PP, PE shrugs off firming local prices in Indonesia

In Indonesia’s local PP and PE markets, prices have been slightly higher since early December as local sellers attempted for hikes amidst strong upstream costs, the ongoing tightness for some particular products as well as firmer regional trends. However, these increase attempts met with resistance from converters amidst the ongoing tepid stance of end-product demand.

A domestic producer applied additional increases of $10/ton on its homo-PP, PP random copolymer and HDPE prices at the start of this week, after issuing $10-20/ton increases last week.

A PP converter said, “Demand towards our end products is quite slow. Therefore, we are not interested in replenishing stocks at the current offer levels.” Another buyer added, “We are not expecting demand to improve until January. We will continue to limit our raw material purchases until the end of December.”

In the local PE market, a buyer noted, “Prices are firming up in accordance with limited supplies, particularly for HDPE. However, demand is not strong enough to absorb any further hikes, defying sellers’ firmer stance. We are not planning to make any purchases beyond our urgent needs in the near term.”

A different converter also said, “We have held our replenishing activities for the moment as we are not in a hurry to make fresh purchases due to the lack of demand towards our end products. Still, we do not expect to see a downturn in PP and PE prices for the near term given low supply levels.”

On the sellers’ side, a few traders commented, “Firming PP and PE prices fail to stimulate buying interests in Indonesia as buyers find the prevailing offer levels to be too high to accept. We lifted our offers at the start of the month, yet we couldn’t achieve a satisfying number of deals.”

Meanwhile, a source from a domestic producer opined, “Our HDPE tightness is likely to last until the end of December while we lifted our PP offers mostly due to firm upstream costs and the firming trend in China. Demand is very slow and we are feeling unsure whether we can maintain the current price trend in the near term.”