August SPVC improts to the Russian market dropped to 34,850 tonnes versus 36,300 tonnes a month earlier. The overall SPVC imports to the Russian Federation decreased to 196,700 tonnes from January to August 2014, down by a third year on year. Imports from the United States and Europe fell significantly, whereas Chinese producers managed to increase their sales of resin to the Russian Federation on the back of lower export prices.

 

The geography of shipments looks the following way over the first eight months of 2014.

 

Shipments of acetylene PVC from China dropped to 22,800 tonnes in August from 25,400 tonnes in July because of railway transportation problems of some producers. Imports of Chinese acetylene resin to the Russian market rose by 5% from January to August 2014 to 117,600 tonnes. Stable export pricing of Chinese producers and limited abilities of Russian producers allowed Chinese producers to increase their sales in Russia.

 

PVC imports from the USA increased significantly over the past two months, last month"s imports of North American PVC to Russia reached 8,200 tonnes versus 6,800 tonnes in July. However, the overall PVC shipments from the United States to the local market slumped over the stated period to 41,400 tonnes, down by 71% year on year. Relatively high export PVC prices and the devaluation of the Russian rouble made imports from the United States unprofitable for Russian companies. Even given the September reduction of the import duty (to 6.5% from 10%), purchasing of North American PVC was unprofitable for most Russian companies.

 

PVC imports from Europe remained quite low because of higher prices and were about 3,200 tonnes in August. The overall imports of European SPVC to the Russian market reached 26,300 tonnes over the said period versus 27,300 tonnes over the same period of 2013.