Europe PVC producers slash output on lack of demand

19 December 2008 14:15  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON(ICIS news)--Several polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producers have announced extended outages over the Christmas period due to a lack of demand in the European market, PVC market sources said on Friday.

Arkema said that it would close all four of its French based operations over the next week for two weeks, which were scheduled to come back online between 2-5 January.

Portuguese Manufacturer Cires closed production at its Estarreja plant on 12 December, and expected to restart it on approximately 28 December.

Other European PVC producers INEOS and Vestolit were continuing to operate over the Christmas season, but would do so at severely reduced rates due to the depressed level of demand.

Both Shin-Etsu and Vinnolit said they would also run at reduced rates, but would begin to build stock ahead of planned maintenance outages in 2009.

Consumers in Europe were also taking a similar course of action, with the majority of Italian buyers reportedly closing production on 15 December and returning between 7-12 January, ramping up production towards the middle of the month, said one source.

The majority of northwest European buyers were also due to close at on 19 December and return on the week starting 5 January. 

One UK buyer said January should be a slow month due to a huge slowdown in domestic European automobile manufacturing markets.

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By: Stephanie Wilson
+44 20 8652 3214

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