Target Europe acrylic hikes of €100/t excessive

19 September 2007 17:51  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--Target hikes of around €100/tonne ($139/tonne) from producers on fourth-quarter acrylic acid and acrylate ester contracts were seen as excessive, said European consumers on Wednesday.

Buyers argued that the acrylic acid, ethyl acrylate (EA) and methyl acrylate (MA) markets were well balanced, and while while heavy esters butyl acrylate (BA) and 2-ethyl hexyl acrylate (2EHA) were tighter, buyers did not find them as tight as producers describe, although they did expect smaller hikes.

Major producer Dow said it would target an additional €50/tonne increase for 1 October, in addition to its €50-80/tonne hike announcement for 1 September.

Another major European producer had decided to aim for an €80/tonne rise on acrylic acid prices and €100/tonne for all acrylate esters.

Good demand, planned and unplanned outages in the US, reduced imports from Asia into Europe and high raw material costs were the reasons behind the announcements, according to sources at the two companies.

Although most European buyers agreed that heavy esters BA and 2EHA were tight, they did not expect to have to pay such a significant increase.

Acrylic acid, EA MA markets were balanced according to the buy-side.

European producers include Dow, Arkema, BASF and Rohm and Haas.

($1 = €0.72)

By: Sofia Lind
+44 20 8652 3214

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