Sector News

European ethylene spot prices have firmed week on week on the back of better-than-expected demand amid higher feedstock values and an increasing focus on upcoming planned cracker maintenance outages.

Spot deals this week have been reported at discounts of 32-35% on the pipeline, prior deals had been at discounts of around 38-39%.

Producers say they have received several requests for additional volume offtakes in July. This is being attributed to a combination of factors:

• Improved sentiment from domestic PVC players following the imposition of tariffs on imports ex-Egypt and the US
• Continued high container freight rates which are restricting some derivative imports
• Recent hurricane-related production and logistics disruptions ex-US
• Firmer month-on-month naphtha values which is likely to drive discussions for the August contract reference price settlement
• Planned cracker maintenance due to get underway from September particularly that due in Germany with alternative supply flexibility likely to be limited at that time due to pressure issues on the ARG pipeline.

by Nel Weddle

Source: icis.com