(ICIS) -- China's polycarbonate (PC) market is expected to be oversupplied in the fourth quarter of the year because of additional capacities from international producers, which will lead to a fall in prices, market sources said on Friday.
Saudi Arabia major SABIC's 260 KTa PC unit at Al Jubail came on stream in the middle of March. Half of the plant's output of PC is expected to be exported to the Chinese market in the third quarter, market sources said.
Meanwhile, Sinopec-Mitsubishi Polycarbonate (SMP) plans to complete the construction of its 60 KTa PC unit at Beijing by the end of the third quarter and begin operations in the fourth quarter, a source at SMP said. SMP's output will be mostly supplied to the Chinese market, market sources said.
China consumed around 1.1m tonnes of PC in 2010. Of this, 969 KT came from imported cargoes, according to Chemease, an ICIS service in China.