Domestic PVC market in Italy maintains upward run in October

14-Oct-10

After increases of €10-30/ton passed on September spot PVC deals, Italy's market started the month of October on a firm note, with sellers revealing their initial offers with rollovers to further increases of €15/ton, as per Chemorbis. For gentlemen’s agreements, after achieving monthly increases of €20/ton in September, PVC producers are now asking for larger increases of €30-40/ton for their October contracts. Sellers are pointing to tight regional supplies as a reason for holding their prices firm despite the strong exchange rate, which paved the way for competitive non-European origins to find their way to Italy. Market talk that a large West European producer shut down their PVC plant once again due to strikes in France, added to the ongoing production issues across the region, thereby providing a firm ground for sellers. Given additional increases from local sellers, along with the strength of the euro against USD, European origins in Italy’s PVC market continued to trade at a premium over other PVC markets for another week. Although there have been no settlements in the contract market yet, spot PVC sellers have already achieved their hike targets, with Italian buyers reporting spot done deals with increases of €15/ton for all grades of PVC this week. Strong local prices pushed many buyers to the import market, which saw attractive prices for Mexican and US origins over the past week and at the beginning of this week. Converters purchased good volumes from these sources, with a seller reporting that he sold out their October allocations for US origin.