Asian players react to Taiwanese major’s PVC announcement for Feb

Players across Asia evaluated the Taiwanese major’s latest announcement for PVC that increased by $20/ton to India and rolled over from January levels to Southeast Asia and China.

According to players, the producer’s new offers currently stand at $980/ton CIF India, cash and at $920/ton CFR China/CIF SEA, cash.

A source from a Chinese PVC producer said, “Contrary to last month, the Taiwanese major offers a $10/ton discount to Indian players for purchases of 500 tons or above. The producer’s latest total allocation is 60,000 tons; divided equally among China, India and other markets.”

An agent of the Taiwanese producer commented, “Although Chinese New Year holiday is approaching, supply is increasing in China as PVC producers keep their operating rates high. But demand is still slowing down.”

Regarding the Indian market, he added, “We heard that the Taiwanese major will push the allocation reserved for deep-sea markets to the Indian market. It is around 15,000-20,000 tons. Demand is very slow for now, but it shows some improvements."

A source from a Japanese producer said, “We have not offered to India yet, but we received a good number of inquiries. Indian players want to build stocks now as they anticipate seeing a new round of increases for the next month. The reason behind stable prices to China but increases to India is the Taiwanese major’s intention to bring the spread between these two markets back to normal levels.”

A source from an Indonesian producer said, “We expected to see lower offers from the Taiwanese producer. Our customers are surprised as well. We heard that the rollover and increase decision is related to maintenances in Taiwan.”

A Vietnamese converter stated, “We have just received the new offers of the Taiwanese major. Now, we are considering whether we should build stocks or buy on an as needed basis. Last month, we purchased some materials from the producer at $880-890/ton and we will bid from the same levels this month as well.”

Another Vietnamese converter reported receiving offers from the Taiwanese major at $900/ton CIF. “We think about building inventory this month but we are not certain on our bid level. We will wait to hear for the Japanese offers first,” he said.