Rollovers mostly pass on Sep PVC, eyes on Oct c2 in Europe

Sept. 20, 2018

In Northwest Europe, September PVC business has been mostly wrapped up with rollovers this week while some negotiations are still underway in the contract market, with buyers placing lower bids in order to pay small discounts of €5-10/ton. Meanwhile, early October expectations are mostly calling for a stable to slightly softer trend for both ethylene contracts and PVC prices.

As for k67-68, the GA net price range is at €890-1030/ton. For specialty grades, the GA net price range is at €895-1040/ton, FD, 15/20 days. Meanwhile, spot PVC prices are at €905-1000/ton for k67-68 and at €910-1010/ton for specialty grades, FD, 30/60 days.

The initial faint hike targets from a few sellers have proved to be unworkable as players reported a mostly stable trend for PVC market this month while small reductions of €5/ton were paid by large-sized PVC converters. A distributor of a South European producer commented, “We have settled most of our September PVC deals at stable prices over August while we heard that small decreases passed on a few deals for large volumes.” Suppliers have also reported that demand from cable and profile manufacturers is regular while buying interest from pipe producers is slowing down in line with the upcoming low season.

Meanwhile, converters confirmed to have closed their September PVC deals mostly with rollovers while small reductions were possible if they had paid stable prices in August. In Germany, a compounder and pipe producer argued, “We are planning to settle our September PVC prices next week and we may be able to pay small decreases of €5/ton to a few suppliers while most of them are firm on their stable offers. Demand is rather slow for compounds and pipes; therefore, we hope that the stable to softer trend will be extended into October.”

For the remainder of the month, PVC prices are expected to hover at around their current levels while players have started to express their projections for a possible stable to slightly lower outcome for October ethylene contracts. This, added to the fact that PVC is expected to face pressure from the slowdown of demand in the third quarter of the year, may pave the way for a stable to softer trend next month.