November ICIS Petrochemical Index down 2.4%

10 November 2006 17:59  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--The ICIS Petrochemical Index (IPEX) for November fell 2.4% to 267.92 points from 274.37 a month earlier on declines for 10 of the 12 petrochemical grades in the basket.

 

The index was up 10.3% from a year earlier, global chemicals market intelligence service ICIS pricing said on Friday.

 

Ethylene was among the significant losers, dropping 7.9% due to sharp declines in Asia-Pacific and the US, ICIS pricing said. Propylene also tumbled in those regions, dropping 5.2%.

 

“Among the two rising categories, methanol soared 34.8% as the European market caught up to earlier rises in Asia-Pacific and the US made over the previous three months. Global values remain at the highest levels of the year. Polystyrene posted a more modest 2.8% gain,” it added.

 

Published at the beginning of each month, the IPEX provides an independent indicator of average change in world petrochemical prices. Dating back to January 1993, these historical prices for a basket of 12 essential petrochemical grades in the US, western Europe, and the northeast Asian markets have been weighted by regional nameplate capacity to generate a monthly index value.

The IPEX product basket is composed of the following 12 grades: ethylene, propylene, benzene, toluene, paraxylene (PX), styrene, methanol, butadiene, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polystyrene (PS).

By: Hilde Ovrebekk
+44 20 8652 3214

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