Distributors in India report that domestic producers have opened their April business by announcing increases on PP and PVC prices while rolling over PE prices from late March level, as per Chemorbis. These price adjustments are in line with players’ expectations, although some distributors had predicted larger PVC increases than those ultimately announced by producers. Distributors report that domestic producers have announced price increases of INR2000/ton (US$44/ton) for homo-PP, INR1000-2000/ton (US$22-44/ton) for PP copolymer and INR1500/ton (US$33/ton) for PVC effective as of April 1, 2011. Producers left their PE offers to the local market unchanged when compared with their late March offer levels. Distributors and converters had been expecting to see higher PP and PVC prices for April as well as a mostly stable pricing trend for PE, although some distributors had been predicting larger PVC increases than were ultimately announced.In the PP market, players had anticipated higher local PP prices as a result of stronger propylene prices in Asia as well as firming import trends. Spot propylene offers on an FOB Korea basis have gained around US$95/ton from the beginning of March while steadily increasing import PP prices had left import prices trading with a considerable premium to local PP prices. Considering import and local PP prices reported earlier in the week, import homo-PP prices had been carrying a premium of around US$80/ton when compared with offers for domestic material. Given the prompt shipment advantage of local cargoes as well as their competitive pricing, most buyers had been meeting their needs from the local market for the past few weeks. In the PVC market, players had been predicting higher local prices given the significant jumps observed in import prices owing to firmer import trends in China and Southeast Asia as well as an ongoing VCM shortage from Japan. Some distributors had been predicting increases of as much as INR2000-3000/ton (US$44-66/ton) on new local prices. Some players attributed the relatively modest increases seen in local PVC prices to the fact that demand is not all that encouraging inside India for now. Prior to producers’ price increases, import offers had been carrying a premium of around US$11-66/ton from domestic materials. Steady PE prices were also in line with players’ expectations for the new month. PE demand is said to be sluggish inside the country and availability is sufficient as Indian buyers are receiving a steady stream of re-export offers from Chinese traders. One Chinese trader reported concluding a re-export deal for Iranian LDPE film to India earlier this week, with the trader adding that they have managed to reduce some of their stock pressure by concluding re-export deals with buyers in India and Vietnam over the past few weeks. Steady PE prices to India also correspond to the prevailing regional trends in the Chinese and Southeast Asian markets.
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