On July 9th, Belgian specialty chemical manufacturer Vinova Group announced that its PVC plant with an annual production capacity of 225,000 tons in Baker, the Netherlands, will be permanently shut down in November 2025 in the context of continued market downturn. “This decision is based on a comprehensive assessment of the manufacturing industry layout under ongoing economic, regulatory and market challenges.” Christopher Andre, CEO of the company, said.

Affected by global overcapacity, sustained weak demand and intensified competition in low-cost and low regulated regions, the European PVC market is facing tremendous pressure and it is difficult to improve the competitive pattern in the short term. Difficult but necessary adjustments will help enhance long-term competitiveness as Vinova will continue to provide reliable services for core markets.

Located in the Chemelot chemical park in the Netherlands, the PVC factory in Baker has been in operation for 53 years since 1972. As a subsidiary of the International Chemical Investors Group (ICIG), Vinova also has PVC facilities in Wilhelmshaven, Germany and Mazandabu, France, and production bases in Longkorn, UK and Tarn, France. Among them, the Tyson Delo base in Belgium supplies raw materials vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) and dichloroethane (EDC) to the suspension PVC plant in Baker through pipelines, and also provides raw material support for PVC plants in Germany and France.

Market participants generally believe that it is necessary to achieve supply-demand balance through capacity optimization as there is a structural oversupply in the current European PVC market. According to Industry insiders, as the seasonal demand recovery in the construction industry is not as expected, it is estimated that there is limited room for improvement in PVC demand for the remaining time of the year.