Recycled polyethylene terephthalate prices in Europe are expected to be rolled over in November, industry sources said Wednesday.
The Northwest European R-PET price was assessed at Eur750/mt ($848/mt) FD NWE Wednesday, flat for the fourth consecutive week. In the UK, the R-PET price was assessed at GBP580/mt ($897/mt) FD UK Wednesday, stable for the third consecutive week.
R-PET sources said that they expect prices to remain steady at current levels in November, supported by bottle-grade prices which increased between the end of September to early October on tighter fundamentals on the spot market.
Bottle-grade PET producers pushed for price hikes in early October as many PET plants were due to enter maintenance in Q3 which meant that contractual production was prioritized and availability of spot material was reduced.
"The R-PET price is picking up slowly with virgin," an R-PET producer in mainland Europe said. "November is moving with virgin pricing. It is bouncing back."
He added that a "slight increase" of around Eur10-20/mt was also possible for the R-PET price and that demand remained good.
A second source in mainland Europe agreed that he expected November prices to be steady.
The R-PET price was pegged in the range Eur750-810/mt this week, the upper end slightly higher than the range heard at Eur750-800/mt in the first half of October.
In the UK, sources expected little change in pricing from October to November.
"Prices are stable for the moment and November is most likely to be a rollover," a UK producer said. He continued that he felt no pressure to decrease prices as fundamentals remained at seasonally firm levels.
On the other hand, another seller said that some of his customers had asked for price decreases in November, but he was intending to keep prices flat.
A third UK source also added, "no major changes [for the price] are expected in the next few weeks."
Nevertheless, a buyer of R-PET pegged the price at GBP570/mt this week, GBP10/mt lower than Platts assessment. He was bearish on the market saying that he expected both the bottle-grade and R-PET prices to fall in November.
During September and early October, UK sources had reported pressure on UK R-PET prices from competitively priced R-PET entering the UK from mainland Europe.
However, if prices stabilize in mainland Europe as sources expect, this will relieve import pressure.
Freight to transport R-PET from mainland Europe to the UK has previously been pegged around the Eur30/mt mark. The UK R-PET price in euros was Eur785.50/mt in the assessment on Wednesday. This is Eur35.50/mt above the NWE price, indicating that there are limited arbitrage opportunities between the two regions.
