MOSCOW (MRC) -- In India, downstream operations have been affected by the 21-day nationwide lockdown, which orders 1.3 billion people to stay at their homes, reported NCT.
Accordingly, sources close to the company reported that India’s DCW shut its 150,000 polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant in Tamil Nadu, India. The restart date was not disclosed at the time of publication.
Furthermore, Chemplast Sanmar has declared force majeure on its PVC supplies from Tamil Nadu unit, sources familiar with the matter said. The plant has an emulsion PVC capacity of 44,000 tons/year, while it produces 22,000 tons/year of suspension PVC.
On the other hand, Indian major Reliance Industries is reportedly operating smoothly despite the lockdown. A source reported that only non-essential factories have been affected by the situation.
As a side note, India has no plans to extend the lockdown, the government said on Monday, as the country struggles to keep essential supplies flowing and prevent out-of-work citizens fleeing to the countryside, said media sources.
As MRC informed earlier, India lockdown adds uncertainty for PVC exports. Last week India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a nationwide lockdown from Wednesday for 21 days in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the world's second-most populous country, which has 1.3 billion people. The lockdown applies to ports, which will slow imports of all kinds of goods, including PVC, to a country that was dependent on PVC imports to meet demand before the pandemic gripped the globe
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, contrary to seasonal factors, Russian producers of unmixed PVC have maintained a high level of capacity utilisation. Russia's overal PVC output totalled 91,700 tonnes in January 2020, up by 4% year on year. January production of unmixed PVC was 91,700 tonnes versus 87,760 tonnes in January 2019 and 81,400 tonnes in December 2019. Thus, despite relatively weak demand for resin from the domestic market, the average capacity utilisation exceeded 95% last month. Russia's overall PVC production reached 975,000 tonnes in 2019, compared to 958,600 tonnes a year earlier.
MRC