Low Demand and Supply Chain Disruptions Depreciate Glass Fiber Prices Across the Globe

The global market for Glass Fiber witnessed a bearish situation primarily driven by the low demand from the construction and automotive industry across the importing North American and European markets.

Prices of Glass Fiber demonstrated a depreciation of approximately 7% in the exporting Indonesian market, which consequently resulted in the influx of inexpensive inventories entering the British and US markets, where product prices depreciated by an average of 10%.

Across the exporting Indonesian market, the depreciation of prices of Glass Fiber is primarily driven by the underperforming industry, with sales declining by 15% on a year-on-year basis and witnessing no fluctuations when compared to October 2023. The construction industry also remained subdued with considerable disruptions in the supply chain system, which include traffic congestions and frequent flooding, leading to delays in construction, consequently leading to pushbacks and delayed procurement of raw materials. The worsening weather across Indonesia continues to create landslides and frequent flash floods, leading to investment confidence being largely negative and forecasting a further bearish situation for Glass Fiber. Moreover, an earthquake of magnitude 7.5 was recorded in the Banda Sea, which compelled authorities to issue a tsunami warning, which consequently halted most of the construction activities, further deteriorating the market situation of Glass Fiber.

The demand for Glass Fiber for exports across the US markets continued to be low as the construction industry continued to perform poorly. New home sales declined, with single-family homes depreciating by almost 6%, and median house sales plunged by approximately 18% in November 2023, even though mortgage rates retreated in November 2023, from 7.79% in the last week of October to 7.22% towards the termination of November for a 15-year fixed term according to Freddie Mac (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation). This low demand from the construction industry further proved detrimental to the market situation of Glass Fiber as inventories from the Indonesian market were left unconsumed. The demand for Glass Fiber from the automotive sector was also largely stagnant as festive demand did not materialize, as indicated by unchanged automotive sales in October 2023, with minor fluctuations observed in November. The government plans to initiate lightweight EVs have yet to materialize as new market players continue testing the existing prototypes before commencing a full-scale production line. These plans are expected to not materialize before 2025, further creating a bearish scenario on the market for Glass Fiber.

The British market for Glass Fiber continued to underperform as the demand from the construction industry was not present due to declining house permits and limited activities from commercial building and civil engineering activities. The reduction in the residential sector and overall purchasing costs was the steepest in November 2023. The residential sector continued to be the worst-performing sector in the construction industry, followed by commercial buildings and civil engineering activities. Construction firms noted that delayed decision-making by clients further led to existing projects being stalled, depreciating the prices of Glass Fiber. The imports of inexpensive inventories from Indonesia complemented this. The automotive industry's performance was also unhealthy, as automotive sales did not witness a significant improvement. Sales increased marginally by 1% in November 2023, which did not improve the market situation of Glass Fiber.