Europe PTA market settling well in arrears

18 April 2008 14:09  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--Talks were still continuing on outstanding January purified terephthalic acid (PTA) contracts, as the gap in price ideas was still in place, said a consumer on Friday.

“We have only partly finalised January business. Negotiations have been very tough this time round, in fact it is exceptionally late,” added the consumer.

One producer had been sticking firm to its target of plus €14/tonne ($22/tonne), in line with the upstream pass through level from the January paraxylene contract.

Other sellers had accepted increases more in the range of €10-11/tonne, which were more readily accepted by consumers.

PTA contracts are typically agreed retrospectively in Europe but a delay of over three months was considered unusual by most market sources.

The outlook was rather more optimistic, with some contract partners saying that subsequent February and March business should be done more quickly.

A similar trend of delays has been seen previously in Asia. Earlier in the year, October 2007 contract talks were only finalised well into January.

On European production, Artenius’ UK T8 plant in Wilton was back to full rates after a planned outage which started on 26 March. Stocks were being rebuilt.

($1 = €0.63)

For more on PTA visit ICIS chemical intelligence

By: Edward Cox
+44 20 8652 3214

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