Turkish polymer players share observations during K Fair

Many polymer players in Turkey stepped out of the market by the middle of last week in order to attend K Fair which takes place on October 19-26 in Dusseldorf, Germany. Sellers and buyers shared their observations regarding the continuing fair with ChemOrbis.

A global PP, PE producer reported, “We will be at K Fair until Thursday. The event grabbed lots of visitors with a massive crowd. In terms of demand, our LDPE sales are doing well while not many deals for PP are done so far.”

A PP trader, meanwhile, pointed to limited supplies from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran. “We lifted our Iranian fibre prices by $15/ton compared to our deals last week and we plan to remain adamant at our latest offer level. Some Iranian producers do not have sufficient supplies, while we heard that their own domestic market is performing well,” he highlighted.

In general, buying interest for PP remains below that of PE. “The sentiment was not for a steep rising trend in the fair. Nonetheless, we replaced some amounts and sold some as well. LDPE and HDPE supplies are limited in general, which makes PE stronger than PP. Meanwhile, even if buyers do not accept the current PP price ideas, costs are obviously making these offers reasonable,” argued a trader.

According to market players, PP, PVC and PE demand from the Indian market has been active in particular. “K Fair was very crowded while the global atmosphere hinted at a firm trend. We heard that American PVC sources sold great amounts to Indian buyers. However, for Turkish players, trade was not very spectacular as global sellers refrained from selling aggressively given issues in the Turkish market such as collection problems, weak demand and political issues,” said a trader. He further added that suppliers voiced firm expectations for Turkey’s PVC market over the short term based on limited supplies.

“Around 3220 participants attended the K fair with approximately 113 companies coming from Turkey. The US PE market is very firm at the moment so that US sellers told us that they are reluctant to export as demand is currently above supplies in their own market. In terms of trading, the fair was not that great for Turkish players due to poor demand in our country,” a distributor commented.

Meanwhile, the market talk is that Turkish packagers showed remarkable interest for processing machines including slicing machines and printers during the fair. “This made us think that 2017 could be a year of new investments in the industry, which is encouraging,” a seller stated. A converter also confirmed, “It is true that manufacturers have some investment plans. At the same time, they remain cautious as they need to track the developments in Turkey first moving into the new year.”