Asian PVC suppliers follow Taiwanese major’s Jan hike

Following the Taiwanese major’s decision to approach the Asian markets with slight increases for January, more PVC suppliers across the region followed the producer’s lead and lifted their import and local offers.

On December 13, the major Taiwanese producer announced its January PVC offers to India, Southeast Asia and China with an increase of $20/ton from its December offers at $910/ton CIF India and $870/ton CFR China/Southeast Asia, cash.

In Southeast Asia, a Malaysian agent of a Thai producer reported that January PVC offers he received from the producer is $35/ton higher on a monthly basis at $865/ton CIF Malaysia, cash basis. “The Thai producer’s offers are higher than some other Southeast Asian producers this month,” the agent noted.

In Indonesia, a producer slightly increased its import and local offers for January by $5-10/ton from last month to $850-855/ton CIF SEA, cash and $900-950/ton FD Indonesia, cash, respectively. “We are facing supply shortage while we still have good amount of orders from the local market for December. We see that many customers, particularly from Malaysia are asking for larger quantities. Meanwhile, we think the supply shortness for PVC will continue as we heard that a Japanese producer will have a long maintenance shutdown next week.”

In India, where the Taiwanese major sold out its allocation within around an hour after the announcement, a trader noted, “Our South Korean supplier’s offers are currently standing at $940/ton CIF, which is $30/ton higher than the Taiwanese major’s offers due to limited supplies. Yet, we heard that the South Korean producer also sold out to India.”

Another trader informed that the offers they received from a Chinese producer for acetylene based PVC increased by $10/ton. “We expect a different Taiwanese producer to raise its offers by $20/ton as well,” he added.

In China, a source from a producer offering at $860-870/ton CIF SEA, noted, “Our offers firmed up and currently, we are not accepting any bids below $850/ton CIF from Southeast Asia. We expect prices to follow a stable to slightly firmer trend in the near term.”

A trader also opined, “The number of inquiries we received from the export market increased following the Taiwanese major’s increase decision for January.”