Expectations for April PVC announcement voiced in Asia

Asian PVC players have been expressing their expectations for April price announcements of a major Taiwanese producer, with most of them focusing on decreases as demand in China and Southeast Asia has been muted due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 outbreak.

In addition to that, the slump in crude oil futures by early week, the weakness in China’s local PVC market as well as competitive Chinese offers have reinforced bearish expectations.

The aforementioned factors are expected to curtain the impact of robust demand in India’s PVC market. Plus, there are fewer US PVC cargoes in India due to turnarounds and most of the shipments from Taiwan, South Korea and other parts of Asia are delayed amid less availability of vessels considering export and import restrictions from China.

A source from a Japanese producer opined, “We believe that virus-hit demand in China and Southeast Asia, lower local PVC prices in China and attractive export PVC offers from China will push the major Taiwanese producer to cut April offers.”

A Taiwanese trader also commented, “We think April offers from Taiwan will indicate decreases as demand from China, Japan and South Korea has been depressed due to COVID-19 outbreak. Plus, Chinese producers are offering at competitive levels to export outlets and global energy markets are weaker amid crude oil battle.”

A converter in the Philippines said, “We think the downward pressure on PVC prices will continue in April as buying sentiment seems to remain weak amid COVID-19 outbreak.”

Meanwhile, global crude oil futures rebounded 7% during an intraday trading on Tuesday, a day after prices plunged by a quarter in a sharpest one-day rout since 1991. This has pushed PVC futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange higher. Although these recent developments have prompted some players to hope for an improvement in the sentiment, others are holding onto their bearish expectations by mainly citing virus-hit demand.