PVC producers continue to face an uphill task in their efforts to raise prices and achieve margin improvement. Having announced plans to raise notations by E100/tonne last month, they only managed gains of E25-30/tonne.
PVC is oversupplied and market leader Ineos has responded by making production cutbacks. There are also scheduled maintenance outages planned elsewhere.
Demand was once again disappointing. The profiles sector performed well and pipe was normal, but packaging and cable sales were lower.
PVC producers intend to take a tougher price stance in July.