Plastics pricing: Asian PVC suppliers have reason to smile. Processors don’t.Plastics pricing: Asian PVC suppliers have reason to smile. Processors don’t.

 
Asian PVC producers attempted to realize $80/ton increases on their initial April offers to China, but most concluded their spot deals at prices close to their initial levels, according to ChemOrbis. With high feedstock costs, as well as limited PVC supplies from Japan as a result of the devastating earthquake on March 11, sellers were able to obtain monthly increases of at least $60-65/ton on their transactions this month. Market observers expect to see further increases on May PVC prices. Plus, adds ChemOrbis, there are more reports of increasing PVC demand in China, with several processors raising their operating rates to 60-70% recently due to an increasing number of orders. 
 
In Southeast Asia, extremely tight supplies as a result of scarce vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) availability across the region also meant another round of hikes for April, with sellers raising their April offers by $60-120/ton, supported further by massive increases of up to $130/ton posted by the regions' local markets in the face of the shortage of local and Japanese cargoes. Following the initial hike requests, spot done deals began to be reported for the most part with increases of up to $110/ton as tight regional supplies prompted buying interest.