Players in Southeast Asia report that they expect to see another round of PVC increases in September in accordance with firmer international trends, limited supplies and expectations that buying interest will open the coming month on a strong note, as per the pricing service of ChemOrbis.
PVC demand for August was unusually strong given the summer season and the approaching holidays. A trader based in Taiwan stated that they lifted their export prices for September to both China and Southeast Asia by $100/ton.
“Our supplier will have very limited availability for September as their VCM supplies will be tight and we are accordingly unwilling to conclude deals for large volumes,” the trader commented. A source at a Thai producer stated, “We are thinking of lifting our September export prices by $50-60/ton.
We expect to see good demand from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines due to supply problems, but we believe that demand from other Southeast Asian countries will be hampered by the monsoon season.”
Regional producers are also said to be mulling over increases on their domestic business for the coming month.
“We are planning to announce our September prices with $90-100/ton increases from August in accordance with the significant increases seen in import prices. We believe that demand will remain healthy next month as buyers will need to replenish their stocks after the long holidays,” a source at an Indonesian producer told ChemOrbis.
A PVC compounder based in Indonesia commented, “We would like to make a few more purchases before the holidays as we believe that prices will move higher again next month. We expect to see good demand for our end products after the holidays.”
A distributor in Thailand reported, “We believe that local prices will increase by around THB500/ton ($16/ton) for September given rising international trends and limited local supply. We were only able to obtain about 70% of our normal monthly allocation for August.”
A source at a Vietnamese PVC producer stated, “We concluded our August sales this week and are planning to announce higher prices to the local market for September. We are seeing steady demand from our customers these days.” A PVC pipe manufacturer based in Vietnam commented, “We purchased 50 tons of material from a domestic producer to top up our stocks this week. We anticipate seeing higher domestic prices for September based on the upward movement in import prices.”
A source at a Malaysian producer told ChemOrbis, “We have received a good number of bids from the local market this week at prices MYR250-300/ton ($81-97/ton) above the most recent domestic prices reported for August, but do not have any material to offer for now. We are struggling to ship out the last of our existing back orders before the onset of the ban on heavy trucks goes into effect for the holidays.”
