Asian PTA Supply to Lengthen, Prices Struggle to Rebound Against Textile Downfall

Asian Purified Terephthalic Acid (PTA) is moving without any price direction due to mixed fundamentals. Market sentiments for PTA remained hurt amid surplus stocks and macroeconomic fragility. Although the week saw more activity in the downstream textile sectors than previous week across the major consuming nations like China and India, the slowdown due to coronavirus led disruptions continued to weigh over the already shaky global textile demand. Amid already oversupplied market conditions, the month of August ended with the news of start-up of new PTA capacities in China, restricting CFR China prices to remain rangebound to USD 447 per MT in the week ending 4^th September. Southeast Asian PTA demand from downstream polyester markets remained battered by surging coronavirus infections in India and Indonesia. The downstream polyester operating rates in India, which now has the second-highest cases globally at nearly 4.3mn are still low at around 35-40% amid muted consumer buying. PTA CFR JNPT prices were assessed around USD 490 per tonne with players anticipating that any near-term recovery in margins deemed elusive as consumption remains tepid in the current scenario.