PTA Weekly Report(Mar.19- Mar.23)

The polyester market stayed at a shaking situation this week under weak demand in the downstream textile market. Judged from the spot market, the discussions in domestic market were around 8550 Yuan. The discussions of Taiwan cargo were around 1145 dollars and the discussions of Korean cargo were around 1135 dollars. As for the futures market, PTA futures showed light increasing tendency this week. Ended by this Friday, contract 1209 of PTA futures in ZCE (Zhengzhou Commodity of Exchange) closed at 8712 Yuan/ton, which increased 50 Yuan/ton compared with the close price on Monday.

In the upstream market, the crude oil price dropped due to worries of weak demand in China and the news of emergency crude oil reserve might be released. Ended by Thursday, New York May oil futures dropped to 105.35 dollars and Brent Mar futures dropped to 123.14 dollars. PX no longer slumped but showed slight increasing tendency. In the market, Asia PX price increased 20 dollars to 1560 dollars and European PX price increased 15 dollars to 1496 dollars.

The inventories of polyester manufacturer were still at a high level, which directly indicated the surplus capacity. It was said that the inventory of most PFY factories was over 30 days and highest even recorded more than 60 days. Therefore, most manufacturers put their main purpose on selling or using the inventory. However, as the demand in the downstream market was still weak, the purchasing intention of the textile factories was weak. This week, the leading discussions of polyester bottle chips accumulatively dropped 200 Yuan/ton to 11200 Yuan/ton and the price of semi-dull polyester chips also decreased 150 Yuan/ton to 10150 Yuan/ton.At present, PTA manufacturers faced deficit. Some of PTA plants were undertaking maintenance recently and the whole PTA market was in a comparatively quiet period. However, the drop of PX price increased the worried of the marketers. If new capacity of PTA put into operation later, the market will become over-supply and the downward tendency will be much obvious.