Asian PVC origins emerge in Turkey

An increasing number of Asian origins such as Korean, Chinese and Taiwanese have shown up in Turkey’s import PVC market this week. This was in consequence of the fact that dutiable import k67 prices in Turkey gained a premium over import prices for ethylene based k67 in China during the past week, according to ChemOrbis Price Wizard, which attracted Asian offers to this market. Prices in Turkey had traded well below China for 5 consecutive months in 2016, meanwhile, as can be seen in the graph below:



Source: ChemOrbis Price Wizard

The emergence of these offers affirmed that Asian suppliers appear to be in search of diverting their material to the other regions with better netbacks at a time when demand is slow and prices are softer in China.

Chinese and Taiwanese PVC k67 prices were at $980-990/ton, CFR Turkey, subject to 6.5% customs duty, cash, while Korean k67 emerged at $1000/ton subject to 1% duty. Meanwhile, these offers are not offering a competitive edge when compared to other origins such as non-dutiable European cargos at $1000-1020/ton CIF and the dutiable US origins at $945-980/ton CIF, subject to extra anti-dumping duty, which are usually traded with re-export document.

In whole 2016, Turkey imported 27,707 tons of PVC from South Korea, according to the data from ChemOrbis Import Statistics. Imports from Taiwan were at 16,402 tons while the figure from China stood at 3,793 tons in the same timeframe.