Southeast Asia opening up to China’s carbide-based PVC

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Southeast Asia is increasingly importing carbide-based polyvinyl chloride (PVC) from China given high cost of ethylene-based material that squeeze the margins of the region’s pipe producers, market sources said on Thursday.

Indonesia and Thailand – two of the biggest PVC markets in the region – are now less hesitant to procure carbide-based PVC cargoes from China, a key trader said at the sidelines of the 18th World Chlor-Alkali conference in Singapore.

India, Russia and Malaysia have traditionally been the key export markets for Chinese carbide-PVC producers, according to the source.

Carbide-based PVC is typically priced around $30/tonne lower than the ethylene-based material. With the recent uptrend in upstream ethylene and ethylene-based PVC prices, this price gap has widened has to more than $70-80/tonne.

Carbide-based PVC are used in the manufacture of PVC pipes, while the ethylene-based variety has a wider application in the construction sector.

However, India’s recent announcement of a revised anti-dumping duty (ADD) structure on PVC imports prompted exempted producers in Asia to hike offers to southeast Asia, the source said.

Southeast Asian pipe producers are grappling with high ethylene-based PVC resin prices given their limited ability to pass on higher prices to downstream users.

Additional reporting by Veena Pathare

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