US EG producers await price boost on outage talk

24 August 2007 00:39  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--US ethylene glycol (EG) producers have limited spot sales ahead of an expected tightening of supply in Asia in coming weeks as a result of an unconfirmed outage at a Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) plant, a distributor said on Thursday.

Sabic has not confirmed the outage at a Middle East plant but the distributor predicted the plant could be down as long as six months.

A lengthy outage would result in a shortage of EG in the Asia market, and provide US supply holders with arbitrage opportunities as early as September, the distributor added.

Prices for fibre grade EG (EGF) were 45-49 cents/lb ($992-1,080/tonne), according to global chemical market intelligence service ICIS pricing. However, all product at the bottom of the range was said to be gone, and 1 September price increases have been proposed by some producers.

By: Gene Lockard
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