Turkey's MetCap Energy Investments announced Monday plans for a 1 million mt/yr polyethylene and polypropylene plant in Turkey to be developed as a 50-50 joint venture with Fusion Dynamics of Qatar. According to MetCap, the plant is to be built at Enez on Turkey's European Aegean coast and will use as feedstock natural gas supplied [...]
LyondellBasell has declared force majeure on the supply of polypropylene from its Lake Charles, Louisiana, plant stemming from mechanical failure, the company said in a letter to customers obtained Monday by S&P Global Platts. In its letter Friday, LyondellBasell said that on April 4 its Lake Charles polypropylene plant suffered a breakage of an extruder [...]
US ethane cracker margins reached record lows Friday as spot ethylene pricing also slipped into uncharted territory. US ethane cracker margins were estimated at 7.06 cents/lb ($156/mt) Friday, the lowest since S&P Global Platts began publishing cracker margins in January 2011. The 0.71-cent drop came as spot ethylene prices also fell to record lows Friday, [...]
US caustic soda exports jumped 25% in the first two months of 2018 compared with the same span a year ago, in part because of a sudden chlor-alkali plant shutdown in Brazil in mid-January that prompted Braskem to seek imports pending a restart. February export statistics that the US International Trade Commission released this week [...]
Europe's polyethylene markets remain bearish on waning demand and abundant supplies. With no indication that inventories are being depleted at a rate that could lift prices, many sellers are instead hoping a recent stabilization in prices may be the bottom of the market for the time being. The April contract settlement for PVC has been talked both [...]
Ethylene producers in Europe managed to push the increased cost of feedstock naphtha into the newly agreed contract price of material in Europe, despite very bearish derivative markets. With the market balanced to tight there are mixed views about whether the contract price increased will be passed downstream in coming weeks. Propylene market activity is [...]
US acetone contracts for March settled 2.5 cents/lb lower from February at 42.50 cents/lb, or $937/mt, sources said Tuesday. Market participants expected a cheaper settlement because of downward movement in spot pricing in reaction to more supply availability amid import arrivals from other regions and slow demand. Acetone contracts would likely see another dip in [...]
US April benzene contracts settled 7 cents lower than March at $2.99/gal, or $894/mt, sources said Monday. April's settlement was in line with expectations among market participants that called for a settlement around $3/gal. US benzene activity was considered quiet by industry players on a couple of ongoing production outages that would be back online [...]