MOSCOW (MRC) -- China's domestic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) market hit a record-high Sept. 22 following the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, due to concerns over supply after the government ordered some provinces to cut power consumption, reported S&P Global with reference to market sources.
Several provinces including Xinjiang, Ningxia, and Shaanxi, where major carbide-based PVC producers are based, were asked to shut, or reduce industrial operations due to higher-than-planned energy consumption in the first half of 2021, according to sources.
China is the world's largest PVC producer, and about 80% of its total 25-26 million mt/year PVC capacity uses coal-based carbide as feedstock, with the rest using ethylene-based feedstock.
"Carbide-based PVC operations are particularly affected as major carbide-based PVC makers are based in these provinces," a market source said.
In Xinjiang, the two major carbide-based PVC producers - Xinjiang Zhongtai and Xinjiang Tianye - have a combined PVC capacity of around 3 million mt/year.
As MRC informed before, in September 2012, Chinese company Xinjiang Zhongtai began a trial run of the third plant for suspension PVC production with the capacity of 900,000 tonnes per year.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall production of unmixed PVC totalled 580,500 tonnes in the first seven months of 2021, up by 4% year on year. At the same time, one producer reduced its output.
MRC