IN BRIEF Markets Watch

13 March 2006 00:00  [Source: ICB]

Dow seeks resin hike

Dow Europe is targeting a €100/tonne hike in Europe for its Magnum acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene resins and Tyril styrene-acrylonitrile resins from 15 March. In April, Dow Epoxy will try to up prices for its liquid and solid epoxy resins by $150/tonne and by $120/tonne for solid solution and brominated epoxy resins in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and India. In Japan, the products will rise by Yen20/kg and Yen15/kg respectively and by €150/tonne and €120/tonne in Europe.

Heavy turnaround season for naphtha

Asian naphtha is set to tighten significantly over the next few months. Shutdown activity will be particularly intense in Japan during the course of the second and third quarters, with close to 2m bbl/day, or above 30% of capacity, estimated to be shut down at some point. During the same period in 2005, refinery capacity shutdowns totalled around 1.5m bbl/day. Cracker shutdowns in Japan will result in 4.5m tonne of ethylene capacity going offline for an average 30-day period during the March-October period in 2006. By comparison, about 2.9m tonne was brought offline in Japan in 2005 for around 30 days.

Surfactant growth steady in US markets

US speciality surfactant demand is to reach $3.4bn in 2009 according to Freedonia. This is up 3.1%/year to total 1.9bn lb (861 840 tonne). Overall growth rates will soften from 1999-2004 as cleaning and personal care market products reach maturity. Cleaning products will experience the slowest growth.

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