On Tuesday afternoon, market participants informed SSESSMENTS that the leading Taiwanese PVC producer had made a price announcement for April shipment. The offers surfaced with significant reductions, $60/ton to India and $50/ton to other markets, compared to March’s level.
Comments by market players on the subject as follows:
“The leading Taiwanese PVC producer’s offers to India market for April shipment is attractive hence buyers will restock inventory. Market talk has it that the producer’s allocation has been sold out. Whether it is true or not, the producer will succeed in selling all allocation within this month. Local producer will have to adjust down offers as well in April,” an Indian trader said.
“The producer decided to apply significant adjustment on offers for April shipment as sales in March was unsatisfactory. Response from buyers for April shipment should be good,” opined a trader in India.
“Southeast Asian PVC producers have not announced PVC offers for April shipment yet. We believe the producers would not lower offers by $50/ton in line with the leading Taiwanese PVC producer. The adjustment is likely to be only around $30/ton,” a Malaysian converter stated.
“Thailand producers will follow the leading Taiwanese PVC producer’s decision, but with lower reductions. It has been a long time since Thai producers offered below $900/ton,” a Thai converter commented.
“The reductions made by the leading Taiwanese PVC producer were quite shocking. The producer’s offer level exceeded market players’ expectation, lower than $900/ton. The major concern right now is that local PVC prices will also drop due to the adjustment on import prices as well as the fluctuation of Rupee exchange rate against the U.S Dollar,” one of the Indian PVC producers said.
“Huge reduction might cause buyers to hold purchases as an anticipation for further corrections. Other producers will have a hard time deciding whether to make the same adjustment or not considering firmer crude oil price,” an Indian trader stated.
“It is unnecessary for the producer to adjust that much as reduction of $30/ton is sufficient. Local producers will be under pressure as buyers will be asking for the same price reduction,” a Chinese PVC producer opined.
“A Philippines PVC producer have to adjust offers for April delivery, otherwise, buyers will switch to import cargoes,” a Philippines trader stated.
“The leading Taiwanese PVC producer’s adjustments for April shipment is huge, but we are not rushing to reduce price, and prefer to wait as PVC demand in China is not too strong due to poor performance on the Dalian futures market,” an acetylene-based PVC producer stated.
“Responses towards the April shipment offers from the leading Taiwanese PVC producer was quite good on Tuesday. Sales number was satisfactory, but after the leading Indian PVC producer made a downward correction of INR3,000/ton ($43.5/ton), market sentiment might be weaker. It is true that the allocation for the India market has sold out, therefore, the Taiwanese producer has given additional quantities,” a trader in India said.
“The amount of additional quantity from the leading Taiwanese PVC producer to India is 30,000 tons, taken from unbooked cargoes in March,” the leading Indian PVC producer informed.
