India’s imports of Chinese PVC falls 30-40%
16 May 2008 11:43 [Source: ICIS news]
SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) imports into India from China have declined by 30-40% in the past month and may fall further in the coming months on reduced Chinese production exacerbated by pre-Olympics and post-earthquake shutdowns, Indian traders and end users said on Friday.
Monday’s devastating earthquake in China’s Sichuan province, which was estimated to have left 50,000 people dead, prompted the shutdown of all but one PVC plant in the southwest province as a safety precaution.
Only Yibin Tianyuan was still running one of its two plants to supply disinfectant chlorine for the rescue efforts.
Several carbide-based PVC plants in China had already shut down on a shortage of feedstock calcium carbide due to the environmental regulations imposed in preparation for the upcoming Beijing Olympics.
This has severely reduced the availability of Chinese PVC for export, especially to markets such as India, which faces a huge shortfall.
"Normally, India imports around 20,000 tonnes/month of PVC from China, most of it carbide-based," said a Mumbai-based polymer trader. "However, lately, there are hardly any Chinese cargoes available."
Even the few cargoes that were available were highly priced, at $1,290-1,300/tonne CFR (cost and freight) India, said an end user. "Most of them are for June shipment and will arrive only in July, when the peak demand season would have ended due to the arrival of monsoon," the end user said.
"One wouldn’t mind paying these high prices if the cargoes could be delivered in June, when demand would still be strong, but there is hardly any availability for May shipment," a second end user said.
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By: Prema Viswanathan
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