China, India to lead PVC demand surge – Reliance

19 June 2008 09:08  [Source: ICIS news]

BANGKOK (ICIS news)--Global demand for polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is set to remain strong this year, with China, India and central Europe leading the way, a senior industry official said on Thursday.

"However, despite strong demand, the PVC industry will continue to face challenges," said C Paparao, senior executive vice president-polyethylene and PVC business, Reliance Industries, at the 12th Asian Chlor-alkali Conference.

With energy and feedstock costs rising, maintaining sustainable margins would be a challenge for PVC producers, Paparao said.

"Northeast Asia is redefining global PVC markets, with consumption in this region totaling 13.3m tonnes/year in 2007, and demand growth averaging 7.5%, " he added.

In the Americas, which consumed 8.5 tonnes of PVC, demand shrank by 1.3% in 2007, he added. However, the threat of US becoming a major PVC exporter was not very serious, despite the sub-prime and housing crisis, he said.

"The US is too inwardly focused to emerge as a dominant exporter," he said.

The two-day conference, organised by ICIS and Tecnon OrbiChem, ends on Friday.

By: Prema Viswanathan
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