Tightness leads to price increase

21 October 1996 00:00  [Source: ICB]

Ethylene prices are edging upwards on the back of tighter availability particularly in the Mediterranean. Much of the tightness in the region stems from a prolonged outage at the 330 000 tonne/year Ras Lanuf cracker in Libya until November.

In Spain, an unscheduled outage at the Repsol Tarragona 500 000 tonne/year unit from 4-10 October saw the Spanish producer in the market for a prompt ethylene cargo. It is understood to have paid $520/tonne cif for a Mexican parcel.

Meanwhile in Italy, Enichem has its 230 000 tonne/year Porto Torres cracker down for six weeks' scheduled maintenance. The recent firming in prices prompted Turkey's Petkim to cancel a recent tender for 4400 tonne ethylene for late October-early November delivery because the lowest offer it received, at $550/tonne FD, was above its price ideas. Ethylene supply is also said to be tightening in northwest Europe and prices firming, with spot material in the ARG pipeline now quoted above DM870/tonne.

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