Europe acetone lengthens on poor MMA demand

28 November 2008 12:24  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--The European acetone market is showing signs of lengthening supply because of cutbacks in methyl methacrylate (MMA) demand, buyers and sellers confirmed on Friday.

“When our clients close plants they don’t need our product,” said a German acetone producer.

“The problem is the automotive industry which is having a big impact on Germany and they (car manufacturers) will all be closed by the second half of December,” the source added.

Polycarbonate, polyamide 6 coming from caprolactam and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) derived from MMA, are all produced from phenol and/or acetone and just some of the materials used in automotive manufacturing.

“Things are worse than last week,” said another acetone producer who confirmed that one of its major MMA customers had cancelled December orders.

“People are taking care of inventories and we are programming our production on this forecast,” said the producer.

“Last week our customer gave a careful forecast for the next 10 days and now it (the customer) has reduced that forecast by 50%.”

Said another major acetone producer: “Let’s forget December,” adding that it had three of its major acetone MMA customers cancel December orders.

“We are in a better position since we have other outlets for acetone,” added the producer.

One European MMA and PMMA producer said that it was living “day by day”, while another described that market as “fascinating but also bewildering”.

“We are doing what we need to do, but there is no need to panic,” added the major MMA and PMMA producer.

Both MMA and PMMA producers confirmed that acetone orders had been cancelled or reduced.

One confirmed that it was production related, while the other said it was because “acetone was too expensive”.

The European acetone MMA fourth-quarter gross contract price was settled down €50-58/tonne ($65-75/tonne) from the third quarter to €975-983/tonne FD (free delivered) NWE (northwest Europe) on weak downstream demand.

($1 = €0.77)

For more on acetone, MMA and PMMA visit ICIS chemical intelligence
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By: Julia Meehan
+44 20 8652 3214

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