Prices rise, fall as PET resin from China soars, plywood from Malaysia contracts – Prices PET resin China Malaysia - Arhive

This content has been archived. It may no longer be relevant

Prices PET resin China Malaysia Prices PET resin China Malaysia Prices PET resin China Malaysia Prices PET resin China Malaysia Prices PET resin China Malaysia Prices PET resin China Malaysia Prices PET resin China Malaysia Prices PET resin China Malaysia Prices PET resin China Malaysia 

Prices rise, fall as PET resin from China soars, plywood from Malaysia contracts

Prices PET resin China Malaysia TOKYO — Changes to Asia’s industrial landscape, primarily in the world’s second-largest economy, are having a domino effect on regional trade of materials — and their prices they fetch at their destination.

Furthermore, as growing Southeast Asian economies develop ever tighter environmental standards, restricted access to raw materials has had a similar effect.

China’s position as a supplier of polyethylene terephthalate resin has strengthened considerably in recent years.

Japan imported 473,000 tons of the material — which is used to produce plastic bottles — from China in 2016, up roughly three times from 2010, when Taiwan was the largest supplier. Imports from China are now double those from Taiwan.

Purified terephthalic acid, the base material for PET resin, is also processed into polyester fiber. Increased demand for the fiber has seen Chinese factories producing the acid expand capacity significantly.

The resulting glut of PTA has led manufacturing plants to process the surplus into PET resin which gets shipped to Japan, said an official at a Japanese petrochemical company.

Prices of Japanese-made PET resin are now falling because the Chinese equivalent can be up to 30% cheaper.

In contrast, Japan’s steel imports from China have decreased sharply. Some 300,000 tons of ordinary steel products were imported in fiscal 2016, down 30% from the previous year.

In fiscal 2014, they were as high as 540,000 tons, but as Chinese domestic demand went up, the growth in steel exports ground to a halt in the second half of 2016.

A growing number of Japanese steelmakers are now raising prices. In early August, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal raised its contract price of H-beam steel — the bars used to make frames for office buildings — by 2,000 yen ($18.13) per ton, the first price hike in three months.

It is not only market forces that are reshaping the landscape of Japan’s industrial imports. Stricter environmental regulations in Malaysia have prompted shifts in trade in timber products.

The Southeast Asian country is Japan’s biggest supplier of the plywood used to make concrete formwork panels for home building.

In July, the state government of Sarawak, a major source of the material, brought in a tax hike and toughened regulations on felling trees.

Malaysia’s biggest plywood manufacturer has said it will cut exports to Japan by 30%, starting in September, due to the ensuing shortage of raw timber.

Japan’s imports of plywood from the country decreased 22% in June from a year earlier to 76,927 cu. meters, while those from Indonesia, the second-largest supplier, increased 0.8% to 73,903 cu. meters. The difference between the two countries has now narrowed to around 3,000 cu. meters, or roughly 5%.

Plywood imported from Malaysia and Indonesia accounts for more than 90% of formwork panels used in Japan. Contract prices for exports from Malaysia have risen for the fourth month in a row from June through September, reflecting the decrease in shipments. During the period, the maximum price rise was nearly 20%.

Since July, trading houses and construction materials wholesalers have raised domestic selling prices of imported plywood in unison.

(Nikkei)

Related Topics

China PET resin anti-dumping – EU terminates anti-dumping measures on China’s PET products

Octal produces 1m tonnes of packaging materials per year