Highlights
In May, the export data was in line with the forecast, and PVC import volume increased greatly. In April, PVC export volume was higher than import volume, but latter one exceeded export volume in May. SCI predicts that in the short run, the import volume of PVC will remain higher than export volume.
Import: May PVC import volume reached a new high in the past few years.
China’s PVC import volume was 92.2kt in May 2020, rising a lot from the same period of 2019 and reaching a new high in the past five years. It was mainly due to the severe public health events in foreign countries and collapsed crude oil prices in April. Foreign suppliers were active in exporting resources under decreasing costs and sluggish downstream demand. Meanwhile, China’s domestic market warmed up, so China became the major export destination for foreign suppliers.
In May, the PVC import volume via general trade increased greatly, mainly as Southeast Asia, India, South Korea, Europe and the U.S. provided offers in succession, and their offers descended in April. Import arbitrage space appeared, and the futures market once gave an arbitrage space of about RMB 200/mt. China domestic traders’ enthusiasm in purchasing PVC strengthened, leading to an increase in PVC import volume. Imports will intensively arrive at ports from May to July.
Export: May PVC export volume continued decreasing.
