MOSCOW (MRC) -- Negotiations over July shipments of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) began in the Russian market last Wednesday. Local producers announced a further price increase of Rb1,000-2,000/tonne for July shipments to the domestic market, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.
Strong seasonal demand and scheduled shutdowns for maintenance simultaneously at two plants led to a shortage of SPVC in the market. On the back of this, domestic producers announced a further rise in contract SPVC prices for July deliveries. At the same time, the increase in contract prices was less significant than in June, when the growth reached Rb4,000/tonne from May.
Some producers have reduced their exports since May in favour of shipments to the domestic market. The shutdown for a turnaround at Kaustik's (Volgograd) production capacities from mid-May to mid-June also led to lower sales of Russian polymer. However, lower exports did not allow to fully meet the growing seasonal demand for resin in the domestic market. And already in June, many consumers faced a shortage of SPVC, with the PVC segment with K=70 accounting for the acutest deficit.
Back in April, several consumers began to contract PVC in China and the USA, in order to provide themselves with material during the summer period, but the volume of purchases was small, if compared to the needs in the "high season". Amid the current shortage, other consumers are not able to promptly increase purchasing of resin in foreign markets at the moment, since the delivery times, as a rule, exceed one month.
Two producers will simultaneously shut down their production capacities for maintenance works in July. SayanskKhimPlast intends to take off-stream its production for a scheduled turnaround on 5 July, the outage will last for 30 days. The Bashkir soda company will shut its production on 14 July, the outage will last for two weeks. Thus, production capacities with a total capacity of just under 600,000 tonnes per year will be shut for maintenance this month, which is quite critical, especially in a period of stronger summer demand.
The shortage of SPVC intensified in the Russian market in July, and some consumers were forced to reduce their capacity utilisation.
July deals for Russian resin with K64/67 PVC were negotiated in the range of Rb80,500-84,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT, for lots of less than 500 tonnes. Some producers' prices of SPVC with K=70, which is in short supply, reached Rb87,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT, this week.
MRC