PVC
DCE (China)
Polyvinyl chloride, the world's third plastic and the material of pipes and window frames, traded on Dalian and tied to Chinese construction.
Polyvinyl chloride, the world's third plastic and the material of pipes and window frames, traded on Dalian and tied to Chinese construction.
Top Producers
approximate share of world PVC production (indicative)
Main Uses
indicative split of PVC demand by end use
Can it be a contract?
7 of 8 tests passed
- Written grade spec: partly. A published specification a buyer will accept sight-unseen.Resin grades differ by application
- Fungible: passes. Any lot of the grade substitutes for any other.Any lot substitutes for another
- Dispatchable: passes. Available at the cadence the buyer needs. Storage is only one route to that; generation and continuous flow are others, which is why power trades without being storable.Available on demand from stock or flow
- Delivery point: passes. A point the trade already uses can stand for the market. A contract cannot invent a delivery location; it has to adopt one the physical flows already run through. The clearest proof that a point qualifies is a liquid basis market against it: every other US gas hub quotes as a spread to Henry Hub, every ISO node settles against its hub, and grades quote as differentials to Brent. Where a point has no basis market quoting off it, it is not really the delivery point.DCE delivery warehouses
- Observable spot price: passes. Somebody publishes or assesses a price the trade recognises.Continuously quoted
- Many on both sides: passes. Enough independent buyers and sellers that no one party sets the price.Many independent buyers and sellers
- Volatility worth hedging: passes. Prices move enough that someone needs to transfer the risk.Moves enough to need hedging
- Enforceable venue: passes. Contracts can be written and enforced where both sides trust the courts. This is separate from the delivery point and often decides it: Russia and Saudi Arabia sit on enormous, long-established physical flows and no forward settles in either, because the flow test passes and the law test does not.Enforceable in a trusted jurisdiction
Forward market: Yes
Passes, with grade variation and a Chinese-centred market the limits.
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Rank
world's third most-produced plastic
structural
Largest producer
China, roughly a third of output
as of 2024
Futures venue
Dalian (DCE), 5 t/lot, yuan/tonne
as of 2026
Price
roughly 4,800 to 5,000 yuan/tonne
2024-2025
PVC, polyvinyl chloride, is the world's third most-produced plastic after polyethylene and polypropylene, and the most construction-bound of them. Roughly 42 to 44 percent of it goes into pipes and fittings, the rest into window and door profiles, flooring, and cable insulation. That makes PVC a direct play on building activity, above all in China, where property cycles move the price.
It is also the plastic with one foot in the chlorine world. PVC is made by combining ethylene with chlorine (from the chlor-alkali process, which is why salt sits upstream of it) through vinyl chloride monomer. China dominates, producing on the order of a third of world output, more than twice the next-largest producer, the United States, against global consumption of roughly 45 million tonnes a year.
The futures market is the Dalian Commodity Exchange PVC contract, 5 tonnes a lot, quoted in yuan per tonne and physically settled, launched in 2009. It carries the single largest weight in Dalian's petrochemical futures index. Persistent overcapacity and soft Chinese property demand kept PVC depressed through 2024 and 2025, trading around 4,800 to 5,000 yuan a tonne.
How It Trades
| Venue | Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) |
| Benchmark contract | DCE PVC future, launched 2009 |
| Contract size | 5 metric tonnes per lot |
| Price terms | Chinese yuan per tonne |
| Settlement | Physical delivery in China |
| Typical curve | Driven by Chinese construction, chlor-alkali economics, and ethylene costs |
| Liquidity | Active on DCE; one of the heaviest-weighted contracts in its petrochemical index |
Supply and Demand
Top producers
- China: roughly a third of world PVC output
- United States: the second-largest producer
- Other Asia and Europe: the next tier
PVC output tracks construction demand; China dominates. Shares approximate.
Top consumers
- China: the dominant consumer (construction)
- India and Southeast Asia: fast-growing pipe demand
- North America and Europe
Major uses
- Pipes and fittings (the largest use)
- Window and door profiles
- Flooring, cable insulation, and other construction products
What Moves the Price
- Chinese property and construction activity
- Chlor-alkali economics (chlorine and caustic soda co-production)
- Ethylene and energy costs
- PVC overcapacity in China
- Infrastructure and pipe demand in emerging markets
Moments That Made the Market
2009
DCE launches PVC futures, one of the first exchange-traded plastics contracts, and speculative volume surges.
2010s
China builds dominant PVC capacity, much of it coal-based via calcium carbide.
2020s
A Chinese property downturn and overcapacity keep PVC prices weak.
What Changed Since the 2010 Era
- China became the dominant PVC producer and price-setter.
- PVC became a direct futures play on Chinese construction.
- A property slump and overcapacity pinned prices low into the mid-2020s.