Asia top stories – weekly summary

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Here are the top stories from ICIS News Asia and the Middle East for the week ended 7 August 2020.

Indonesia PP imports to face challenge from competitive domestic prices
Import activity for polypropylene (PP) to Indonesia is poised to face more challenges going forward, as major local producers cut prices in the domestic market to stimulate buying interest.

Asia MTBE negotiations in a standoff; outlook uncertain
Asia’s methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) discussions were in a stalemate amid weak downstream gasoline market while upstream crude prices are rising.

China acetone falling on subdued demand; supply to grow
Spot acetone prices in east China have been falling for more than two months on weak demand from downstream markets, while supply is expected to increase on plant start-ups.

NE Asia propylene could see wide buy-sell gap; thin talks in near future
Northeast (NE) Asia propylene market is set to see wide gap in bids and offers as producers cite tight supply to raise prices while buyers resist any such efforts.

Divergent trend between China and deep-sea soda ash prices drags market
China’s soda ash market extended gains as producers stood firm on higher offers in a bid to recover margins on the back of production cost pressures.