Vinyl Moves Back into Asia as Regional Pricing Improves

US vinyl producers have renewed exports to Asia, after six weeks without orders from the region. The recovery in polyvinyl chloride constitutes only a small pause in the downward trend, however, say market watchers. The economic fundamentals of the region have not changed sufficiently to indicate that demand will improve much before the end of 1998, and a full turnaround is not expected until third quarter 1999. Producers also report increased exports to Latin America since the beginning of 1998, although overall demand has weakened there recently. The US domestic PVC market has remained strong since the beginning of the Asian crisis, producers say.