If you buy FIBCs, woven PP bags or container liners, you are really buying polypropylene with some conversion on top. The polymer is the largest single line in the cost of almost every bag. Yet most buyers never see where that polymer is trading, which means every quote arrives without any way to check the number underneath it.
We publish the PP raffia Platts assessment on indiapack.co.in every Wednesday to Thursday, and send it out with our weekly newsletter. This page explains what the number is, why it moves your bag price, and how to use it before you approve your next order.
What is PP raffia?
PP raffia is the polypropylene grade spun into flat tape and then woven into fabric. That fabric becomes bulk bags, tonne bags, sacks and liners. When people in the trade talk about the raw material cost of a woven bag, PP raffia is usually the grade they mean.
The same finished product goes by different names depending on where you buy it. In the UK it is a bulk bag, tonne bag or builders bag. In Germany and much of continental Europe it is a Big Bag. In the United States it is a bulk bag, FIBC or super sack. Across Scandinavia it is a storsäck or storsekk. Whatever it is called on your purchase order, the fabric is woven from PP raffia, so the polymer price sits underneath all of them.
Because the polymer forms the base of the bag, its price sets the floor for what any supplier can quote. A converter can move a little on their margin and their efficiency, but they cannot quote below the resin.
What causes FIBC and bulk bag prices to rise or fall?
Polymer prices move with feedstock costs, refinery and cracker economics, freight, and regional supply and demand. When those inputs shift, the resin price shifts, and bag quotes follow a little later as new resin works through the supply chain.
For a buyer, that lag is useful. If you can see the polymer benchmark rising today, you have some warning that quotes are likely to firm up over the coming weeks. If it is easing, you have a reason to open a pricing conversation on your next enquiry. Buyers who track the polymer negotiate with context. Buyers who do not are pricing blind.
How quickly do polymer prices reach bag quotes?
Crude oil is the upstream signal, and polypropylene sits a few steps below it in the chain. Our own analysis of the weekly PP raffia and Brent crude data on this page, running from February 2020, indicates that crude movements typically show up in PP raffia prices around one to four weeks later, and that only part of a crude move passes through to the polymer. This is why watching crude alone is not enough, and why we publish the polymer assessment itself rather than asking you to infer it from oil.
What is a Platts assessment?
Platts is a price reporting agency, now part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, whose polymer assessments are widely used as a reference across the industry. When a converter or trader refers to the market level for a grade, they are often pointing at a Platts number. It is one of the common yardsticks the trade uses to describe where a polymer is sitting on a given day. The figure we publish is the weekly PP raffia assessment for the South Asian sub-continent.
What does India Pack publish, and when?
Every Wednesday to Thursday we post the current PP raffia Platts assessment on the site, so you can:
- Check the current polymer benchmark without holding a paid data subscription
- See how the level has moved over recent weeks
- Sanity check a supplier quote against the resin cost underneath it
- Time an enquiry with some read on where the raw material is heading
The page is not limited to this week's figure. It carries PP raffia and Brent crude price data going back to February 2020, so you can view the two series side by side, follow the trend across several years, and run your own analysis on how the polymer has tracked crude over time.
The point is to give buyers a share of the information the sell side has always had, so both sides of a quote start from the same page.
For product detail and specifications, see our FIBC and bulk bag range and the industries we supply.
How can I get PP raffia prices in my inbox?
You can visit the page each week, or you can let the number come to you. Our weekly newsletter carries the latest PP raffia assessment along with short, practical notes for buyers of woven PP and FIBCs, so the figure lands in your inbox without you having to remember to look.
Subscribe here: https://www.indiapack.co.in/pp-raffia-prices
India Pack has spent ten years sitting between international buyers and audited Indian manufacturers, and one thing has held true throughout: buyers make better decisions when they can see the numbers. Publishing the polymer price every week is a small part of that.
Want the current PP raffia level and the rest of a live enquiry priced out? Request a Quote.
Frequently asked questions about PP raffia prices
What is PP raffia? PP raffia is a grade of polypropylene spun into flat tape and woven into fabric for FIBCs, bulk bags, woven sacks and container liners. It is the main raw material in a woven PP bag.
What is PP raffia used for? It is woven into the fabric used to make bulk bags (also called Big Bags, tonne bags or super sacks), woven polypropylene sacks, and flexible container liners.
What drives the price of FIBCs and bulk bags? The largest single cost is the PP raffia polymer itself, so bag prices move broadly in line with polypropylene prices. Those in turn respond to crude oil and feedstock costs, cracker economics, freight, and regional polymer supply and demand.
How often do PP raffia prices change? Assessed benchmark prices are published weekly. India Pack posts the current PP raffia Platts assessment every Wednesday to Thursday.
Where can I check current PP raffia prices? India Pack publishes the weekly PP raffia Platts assessment for the South Asian sub-continent on indiapack.co.in, alongside Brent crude data going back to February 2020, free to view.
Does India Pack sell polypropylene? No. India Pack is a procurement intermediary connecting international buyers with audited Indian bag manufacturers. It does not trade in or supply polypropylene. The price page is provided for market awareness only.
Disclaimer: All prices shown on this page are indicative only and are sourced from Platts (S&P Global Commodity Insights) weekly assessments for the South Asian sub-continent. India Pack does not trade in or arrange supply of polypropylene, and accepts no responsibility for procuring PP at any price listed here. This information is provided solely for market awareness and general reference. It does not constitute a trade offer, privileged or confidential market intelligence, or any form of professional, commercial, or procurement advice. Actual transaction prices may differ materially from the indicative figures shown.