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Major regional producers might open November shipment offers for PVC by early next week and up to this moment, expectations on the potential price trend remain mixed. In fact, Chinese buyers are confident that the market has hit the bottom after the $100/ton reduction in October while Indian buyers are not completely satisfied with the previous cuts.

In October, major Taiwanese maker offered only $60/ton reduction to India market and the off-take rate was not very strong. Until this week, players in this market continue seeing sluggish demand condition while the steep depreciation of the Indian Rupee is discouraging demand for imports. 

“Demand for rigid PVC pipe is poor. We expect to see at least $30/ton reduction in the new offers compared to last month,” an Indian buyer commented. 

A major local producer maintains PVC prices unchanged this week while lifting PP, PE offers by INR1500/ton ($20/ton) citing the exchange rate issue. “We expect the local producer to only adjust PVC prices after new offers from overseas maker emerged. With the active price protection scheme, it is less likely that buyers would source more cargoes from the import market,” another trader commented. 

Meanwhile, Chinese buyers have aggressively made replenishment before going off for the weeklong National Day Holiday and remain mostly on the sideline this week. Overseas sellers have depleted large quantity to China, which supports the notion that market might have reached the bottom and likely to follow the stable to slightly firmer trend this time.

“Our principal supplier also hopes to see Indian buyers become more active before going off for the Diwali holiday. We are on the wait and see now but hope to see continued strengthening demand in China market,” a distributor for a Taiwanese maker commented.