PVC producer in Brazil doubts 5% demand growth forecast

24 March 2009 21:18  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) demand growth in Brazil in 2009 will likely be less than the 5% year-over-year increase forecast by the trade group Instituto do PVC, a Brazilian producer said on Tuesday.

The producer said the trade group’s forecast was “optimistic” given the slowdown in home construction and infrastructural expansion in Brazil as a result of the global credit crisis. Construction projects are a major consumer of PVC building materials.

Brazil is currently a net exporter of PVC, and that is unlikely to change until at least the third-quarter, the producer said.

However, the credit crisis has not impacted Brazil’s banks nearly as severely as those in the US and western Europe, primarily due to higher interest rates and lower levels of borrowing in Brazil, the producer said. 

That should lead to a faster turnaround in Brazil’s financial situation, and a stimulus package being put together by the Brazilian government should help loosen up lending for construction projects, the producer said.

Brazilian PVC producers include Braskem and Solvay.

($1 = €0.73)

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By: Greg Holt
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