Dalian Commodities Exchange, which has been trading linear low density polyethylene futures since July 2007, is preparing to launch PVC future contracts soon.

The exchange has been fine-tuning the contract and conducted a successful 60-minute test drive February 27, according to various media reports. Industry insiders have hinted that trading will begin by the end of this month.

Being the world's largest producer and consumer of PVC resin, China managed to grow its PVC capacity by 9.2 percent in 2008. However, actual output dropped almost a million metric tons from the previous year, to 8.8 million metric tons. Meantime, apparent consumption of PVC exhibited a sharper annual decline of 11.2 percent to 9.2 million metric tons.