MOSCOW (
MRC) -- Negotiations for January delivery of Russian PVC started last week. Despite increased availability and lower prices globally, producers have rolled over December prices for January shipments, according to the
ICIS-MRC Price Report.
The global availability of PVC began to improve in November, with the largest price decline over the past two months was in Asia. Nevertheless, the great remoteness from the Russian market and the problems with logistics for supplies from a number of regions of the world predetermine the almost complete absence of pressure on Russian producers from imports.
As a result, Russian producers managed to keep the December price level for suspension PVC in January, and converters accepted the fact of the absence of the alternative. Local producers in Asia have twice reduced their PVC prices since November, and the price reductions were quite significant. But even in the new price realities, due to complex and expensive logistics, Asian PVC is difficult for Russian converters to buy and it is quite expensive.
The situation is similar with North American PVC.
Export quotas from local producers have increased, while PVC prices have fallen in price for export. Prices for North American PVC are close to the level of Russian producers, but long shipping times stop interest in current purchases of PVC from the United States.
Nevertheless, despite all the difficulties with logistics, imports of suspension PVC this year increased by 36% compared to the same indicator in 2020 and exceeded 60,000 tonnes in eleven months. Key import volumes were from the producers from China.
Negotiations on the January shipment of Russian PVC started in the middle of last week, but some producers started discussing supply this week. Converters, in turn, for a number of reasons are no longer trying to reduce the prices of domestic PVC.
The demand for PVC from the Russian market has decreased, some converters intend to stop their production facilities for maintenance works during the New Year holidays, and some for a longer period. Some converters reported a serious reduction in demand for finished products.
Russian PVC prices in rouble terms broke a historical record in December, and the December price level was rolled over for January supplies. Deals for PVC with K64/67 were discussed in the range of Rb175,000-200,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT, for volumes less than 500 tonnes. Discussions for K70 resin started from Rb205,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT, and higher.
MRC