Exxon startup

17 November 1997 00:00  [Source: ACN]

EXXON has started commercial production at its 700 000 tonne/year cracker in Baytown, Texas. The company will use much of the additional supply for captive use, but intends to negotiate contract sales for the balance.

The move lifts ethylene capacity at the Baytown olefins plant to more than 1.9m tonne/year. Capacity at the company's Baton Rouge, Louisiana, facility is 882 000 tonne/year.

The US facilities, together with joint ventures worldwide, now represent 4.8m tonne/year of ethylene production capacity for Exxon.

US bulk chemical prices*
	Contract		Spot
	Sept	Oct	Oct	Nov
Ethylene5	25.5-26	25.5-26	20-21	20-21
Propylene7	20.75	19.5	18-18.5	17-17.5
Butadiene	22	21	21-22	20-20.5
Methanol4	56-60	56-60	57-61	na
MTBE4	80.5-119	90.5-122	86-86.5	91-93
Acrylonitrile8	770-790	740-760	na	na
Ethylene glycol3	34	34	na	na
VCM	21.372	21.372	na	na
Benzene	100	95	95-96	96.5-97
Toluene4	na	na	82-84	80-81
Xylenes4,6	91	82	81-82	72-73
Styrene	28.5-30	28-30	22-22.5	21.5-22
Paraxylene	22.5	21.5	na	na
Orthoxylene	19.5	18.5	na	na
1 actual 2 estimate 3 fibre grade 4 cent/gal 5 list contract 6 fob Gulf Coast 7 polymer grade 8 US Gulf Coast export price in US$/tonne cif NEA Prices are cent/lb unless indicated otherwise. *The information contained in this table is based on data supplied by Pace Consultants, 4848 Loop Cen- tral Dr. II, Houston, Texas 77081, USA. Tel: +1 713 669 7803, Fax: +1 713 661 8476.

Acrylonitrile: Prices for export were in the US$740-760/tonne cfr NEA range. Export demand had softened.

Vinyl chloride monomer: Demand for ethylene dichloride and VCM continued to slow. VCM formula prices were expected to settle at 21.37 cent/lb for September and October.

Ethylene glycol: Prices for fibre-grade were 34 cent/lb. EG prices were down slightly to 28-29 cent/lb. Prices are expected to be flat or down slightly through the rest of the year.

Benzene: October contract prices settled at 95 cent/gal, down 5 cent/gal from September. Spot prices have been in the 97-98 cent/gal range. November prices were expected to be around US$1/gal.

Toluene: Weaker demand has driven toluene spot prices lower. Prices were in the low 80s cent/gal in mid-October. The calculated gasoline blending value for toluene in late October was 61 cent/gal for conventional gasoline and 65.8 cent/gal for reformulated gasoline, well under current market prices.

Mixed xylenes: The October contract price decreased by 9 cent/gal from September levels to 82 cent/gal. Spot prices were around 72-73 cent/gal in late October.

Orthoxylene: The October contract price was at 18.5 cent/lb, down 0.5 cent/lb from September.

Paraxylene: Some producers had proposed increasing prices by up to 3 cent/lb for Q4. However, US producers elected to follow suit when Asian Q4 contracts settled at 21.5 cent/lb and several parties in Europe agreed to similar terms.

The decision by US players to settle at 21.5 cent/lb is a recurrence of the pattern for Q3 contracts.

Styrene: Spot prices decreased a little in October with prices in the 21.5-22 cent/lb range. The September contract price was 27-29 cent/lb. Plant outages and scheduled turnarounds have kept supplies snug.

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