N American Oct methanol cleared for takeoff

28 September 2007 20:46  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--The two leading North American suppliers of contract methanol nominated on Friday hefty increases for October, a week after one of the producers warned its customers that it may be unable to fully supply contract commitments during the fourth quarter.

Methanex nominated an October non-discounted reference price of $1.70/gal ($565/tonne), up by 74 cents, or 77%, from September.

Southern Chemical, the North American marketer for Methanol Holdings (Trinidad) Limited (MHTL), nominated an October non-discounted barge contract price of $1.65/gal, up by 69 cents, or 72%, from September.

The nominations were the highest since January, when Methanex and Southern set contract benchmarks at $1.80/gal and $1.70/gal, respectively.

The most recent spike in pricing has been caused primarily by supply tightness related to production losses at Methanex’s 3.8m tonne/year Chilean site, buyers and traders said.

MHTL has also taken modest production losses from spotty outages and a maintenance turnaround at its 480,000 tonne/year M1 unit in Trinidad, according to supply-side sources. A restart of the M1 unit was expected this weekend.


By: David Barry
+1 713 525 2653

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