Russian SPVC prices fall in November

MOSCOW (MRC)–Russia’s prices for suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) have decreased Russian roubles (Rb)  6,000-7,000/tonne ($103-120/tonne) in November, compared to October, according to an MRC Price report.

During August, September and October, high seasonal demand for finished products and scheduled shutdown for maintenance amid insignificant imports allowed Russian SPVC producers to achieve an overall increase of Rb7,000-8,000/tonne in domestic prices.

By November, the situation had changed radically both with demand for polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and with prices in foreign markets, particularly in China.

Therefore, Russian producers were forced to significantly reduce their PVC prices for November shipments.

Insignificant quantities of imported material and scheduled outages at several Russian plants forced many converters to purchase additional volumes of resin in August-September, which partly caused a deficit and a dynamic price increase.

Demand for finished products from PVC remained strong in October, but many converters had already reduced their purchasing, realizing that will be price cuts in November.

Kaustik, Volgagrad was the last producer that shut down its PVC production for a turnaround, the outage was quite long and took place from 26 September to 18 October.

However, the outage at Volgograd plant virtually did not affect the market balance, on the contrary, there was even a surplus of material in the resin with K-67 segment.

In the second half of October, Chinese producers significantly decreased their export prices, the reduction in prices of acetylene PVC averaged $100/tonne compared to the level of the second half of September.

Some Russian companies began to contract resin for deliveries from China.

The danger of an influx of imports from China and weaker demand from the domestic market made some Russian producers reduce their PVC prices in the second half of October, with some of them reducing prices by an average of Rb3,000/tonne.

The further reduction in demand under the pressure of seasonal factors and danger of the influx of Chinese acetylene PVC forced producers to reduce their November contract prices.

Many converters announced a reduction in this month’s processing volumes of resin, some companies were slow to conclude deals, expecting further price cuts in the second half of the month.

Overall, deals for November shipments were done in the range of Rb66,000-68,500/tonne CPT  (carriage paid to) Moscow, including VAT, for K-65/67 and for quantities up to 500 tonnes.

Negotiations over prices for resin with K-70 started from Rb66,500/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT, and higher.

($1 = Rb58.36)

MRC, a partner of ICIS, produces polymers news and pricing reports from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.