US methanol producer Southern Chemical Corp. will hold its April North American posted contract price at 149 cents/gal ($496/mt) FOB USG, the company said in a notice sent to customers Thursday.

SCC’s flat contract price follows Methanex’s announcement for its April North American contract price, which also was unchanged at 149 cents/gal ($496/mt) FOB USG.

With discounts and rebates averaging 20%, the net contract price for April comes to 119.2 cents/gal.

The contract prices are in line with market expectations after Methanex on March 21 held its European second-quarter contract price flat to that of the first quarter at Eur380/mt (about $466/mt), while the more widely used European contract price for Q2 was also settled unchanged at the same price.

Sources said this, along with current healthy market dynamics and strong pricing on the Gulf Coast, were supportive of flat April contract prices for US producers.

Demand continues to drive market activity ahead of April plant outages in Europe, the Middle East, Venezuela, China and Southeast Asia.

SCC is the US distributor for Methanol Holdings Trinidad, the largest producer in the Americas at 4.1 million mt/year. Methanex ranks as the world’s largest methanol producer by capacity.

US spot methanol prices were assessed Wednesday at 118.75-119.25 cents/gal FOB USG for April and May.