Asian buyers are less responsive to new PVC offers

As a major Taiwanese producer announced April delivery offers to Asian buyers with $20/ton month on month increase, which is smaller than initial expectation, especially among Indian players; yet initial respond from buyers are not very positive.

In India, buying interest loose momentum this month as players here are said to be more concentrating on the annual tax issues than to make fresh replenishment. “Buyers here have a better choice of sourcing materials from local suppliers, which are more competitive than import cargoes at the moment. Falling upstream costs and persistent weak demand in other Asia markets also negatively impacts the general sentiment. Therefore, we think it is difficult for international suppliers to achieve full hike this month in India,” a trader commented.

A Southeast Asian producer added, “Indian customers are placing bid at much lower than expected levels and it appears that demand in this market is indifferent from Southeast Asia or China. We plan to implement $20/ton hike on new offers and might adjust depending on market feedback.”

Even in Southeast Asia, where demand has been trailing behind other regional markets for quite some time now, remain weak. Buyers across the region are complaining about slow end product businesses and difficulties they faced in transferring higher raw material prices to end product’s. A Vietnamese buyers received fresh offers from Taiwanese producer at $970/ton CIF, LC AS term said, “We are waiting for Japanese suppliers to announce new offers before making purchases. New offers are too high for the current market condition and we might need to source Chinese carbide based PVC if the suppliers refuse to give discount.”

Buyers across Asia therefore are hoping to see some downward adjustment from major suppliers within this week amid slower than expected demand condition. However, tight supply stemming from several shutdowns and firm EDC, VCM costs might prevent any significant cut.