PVC Prices Mounted Up Continuously

Unit: RMB/mt

The PVC market trended up last week. The prices continued to rise. The mainly reasons were the rebound in futures prices, the rising demand from end users and the increase in maintenance plans.

PVC producers: The inventory at PVC producers declined notably last week. More PVC was pre-ordered. The ex-works prices of PVC went up continuously. The profits at calcium carbide-based PVC enterprises mounted up, while those at Inner Mongolia chlorine-alkali integrated enterprise shrunk. The reason was that as the prices of aluminum oxide in Inner Mongolia declined, the prices of liquid caustic soda declined accordingly. Besides, many enterprises which used chlorine stopped production due to environmental protection supervision.

Traders: Early in last week, the traders stocked up PVC intensively, and the sales were favorable. The rising prices encouraged the confidence of players.

Downstream factories: The operating rates of PVC products factories changed marginally. Some small sized factories ran at low loads due to SCO Summit. The large factories ran steadily. The inventory level of feedstock PVC increased further.

Highlights:

1. The central government's second environmental protection inspection team was stationed in Inner Mongolia. 5 or 6 small calcium carbide furnace in Shagedu Town was shut down. The daily output of calcium carbide declined by 300-400mt, which less than 1% of the total output of calcium carbide in China.

2. Affected by environmental protection supervision, many chlorine products factories stopped production. The sales pressure of chlorine was large.