Import American PVC prices retreat in global markets

07-Oct-11

American PVC prices are retreating in major global markets including Turkey, Italy and Egypt, amid weakening import prices for this origin in China’s PVC market prior to its’ week long National holiday, as per ChemOrbis. Weak demand as well as the lower upstream costs are the main reasons behind these decreases. Crude oil prices on Nymex have been hovering under the US$80/bbl threshold, while spot ethylene prices in the US have dipped to their lowest levels last seen in February 2011. Meanwhile, globally weak PVC demand continues to keep the VCM market soft. In Turkey, import PVC prices for US origin retreated below the US$1000/ton mark. Prices below this level were last seen more than a year ago in May 2010. Meanwhile, the current range for American PVC prices shows a weekly drop of US$20-40/ton. Coupled with the weak demand and globally lower prices, players in the country comment that the decreasing trend has become more visible in the market. In Egypt, import American PVC prices have been on a downward trend since early August. Prices have continued with their relentless decreases amidst thin trading activities in the polymer market and the total drop amount on American import prices mounted up to US$192-214/ton when compared with the early August levels. Meanwhile, prices are US$20-30/ton down on week over week basis. Nevertheless, these declines are far from generating any buying interest in the market as they continue to push buyers away from making fresh import purchases with the expectations of further decreases amidst weak global demand, which shows no signs of recovery. In Italy, import American PVC prices also lost ground in this market. A trader offering US cargoes with end-October delivery reported to have down adjusted their prices to be competitive, given the softening prices in other global markets for this origin. The trader, offering US PVC in September with decreases from August levels, still complains about not seeing encouraging demand from buyers. China has been no exception to this declining trend as October offers were reported US$90-100/ton below September done deals for this particular origin in the country. Most buyers were commenting that that they were planning to wait until after the National Day holidays are over next week to decide on their purchasing policies.