PET Enters March 2024 on a Stable Note in Europe and USA, Outlook Seems Bullish

Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) price experiences a contradictory trend for the US and European market during early March 2024. In the US market, PET price remained stable during the first week of March 2024, due to the balanced supply chain and uninterrupted operation while market took a growth of around 4.5% in February 2024, attributed to the significant factors from feedstock shortage and logistics interruption. Eventually, PET prices marked stable price during first week of March 2024, However, Alpek Polyester USA, has announced to increase the PET price by around USD 110/MT, in effect from 1st March 2024, owing to the complexities from the upstream and logistics factors, that has been a complex factor in the import. In recent months, the PET market has experienced a shortage of its feedstock i.e. Mono Ethylene Glycol, driven by the shutdown of manufacturing units or reduction in the operation capacities, due to the unfavorable climate conditions. The shortage of MEG (raw material for PET) coupled with the fluctuation in crude oil prices and geological tensions forced the key players to increase the price, including Indorama Ventures and MEGlobal.

European market has experienced the same trend for PET prices, In the first week of March 2024, the price escalated by around 1.2% in Germany while in previous month, price rose by 5.8% on month-on-month basis. This is attributed to the intense feedstock price and supply chain disturbance. Concurrently, the downstream market has lackluster demand during recent months that is why commodity prices hold price stability from the last multiple weeks.

However, price is expected to step up in March 2024, attributed to numerous factors including the protests across the European nations, from Spain to Belgium, farmers are angry on the Governments Green policies and protesting against the policies i.e. Nitrogen emission curbs and Pesticide bans, high business cost and the increasing competition due to abroad imports, creating turmoil for road logistics across the European border as several borders has sealed by the angry protestors, is another interruption for European region along with the global marine logistics disruption.

To Conclude, PET price is expected to increase during upcoming time in USA as well as in European market in coming period as extreme cold weather has been improved that will enlarge the demand from downstream beverages and food packaging industries. Furthermore, crude oil fluctuation coupled with the logistics interruptions may force the producers to increase the price of its feedstock and PET.