Players in India report that initial October PVC prices have been announced with increases from September on the back of firm upstream costs and limited regional availability, as per the pricing service of ChemOrbis. However, prices at the upper end of the new import range are struggling to find support as a major Taiwanese producer’s new prices stand close to the lower end of the import range, pressuring sellers at the higher end to moderate their hike targets.
A trader based in Taiwan reported, “We lifted our prices to the Indian market by $40/ton for October in line with our supplier’s price hikes. We were a bit disappointed with our supplier’s increase decision as producers from the nearby South Korean market had been seeking higher prices and we feel that we might have been able to achieve some additional increases for this month.” Another Taiwanese trader added, “We have increased our prices for October and we feel that prices are close to their peak now as buyers are showing strong resistance to any additional increase proposals.”
An Indian trader commented, “We purchased some October cargoes from the Taiwanese producer to keep our stocks at normal levels. After the Taiwanese producer’s price announcement, a Northwest European seller lowered its prices to India by $20/ton to stay competitive with Taiwanese cargoes.” Another trader based in Mumbai told ChemOrbis, “We raised our prices by $30-40/ton in line with the Taiwanese producer’s price hike. We believe that the producer will shift some of their allocations from China to India for October and is therefore attempting a relatively modest increase.
India may be expected to absorb more imports next month as the week long National Day holidays in China will dampen China’s PVC consumption.” An Indian converter in the packaging sector stated, “We are not interested in the offers we received for South Korean PVC as we find offers for Taiwanese material to be more competitive.” An Indian PVC pipe converter stated, “We are sourcing our needs from the local market rather than the import market as local prices were stable this week while import prices moved higher. We have reduced the operating rates of our plant as we are not anticipating seeing strong demand for our end products this month.”
