RusVinyl’s 330,000 ton per year plant, a joint venture between SolVin and Sibur, started up in September 2014. According to the company, production is not intended for the export market but as a replacement for imports.  

In 2013, the United States, China and Germany were Russia’s top suppliers of uncompounded PVC. Imports of this polymer totaled 469,000 tons, down 14% from the prior year, with 170,000 tons coming from the United States, 131,000 tons from China and 79,000 tons from Germany.

Through June of 2014,  prior to the new plant’s start up, there had already been major changes.  Russia’s PVC-U imports were down 31% June YTD, to just under 200,000 tons. China was now the leading supplier with 74,000 tons YTD, but this was down 21%. There was a much steeper decline, down 70%, on 33,000 tons of imports from the US, which fell to third place. Germany was the second largest supplier, with 42,000 tons and a gain of 5%.