CEE petchems record highest margins in July since downturn

19 August 2010 16:25  [Source: ICIS news]

PRAGUE (ICIS news)--Petrochemical producers in central and eastern Europe (CEE) in July recorded their highest margins since before the financial crisis took hold, ING bank said on Thursday.

"July produced the highest margins so far this year and since 2007/2008, and August could be just a tick lower, so the recovery is still going ahead,“ said Tamas Pletser, a Budapest-based oil, gas and petrochemicals analyst for ING.

"Regarding the future, everything depends on the global economic recovery and the new Middle East petchem capacities, which may arrive on the European markets by the end of this year,“ he added.

Latest figures from Czech petrochemical producer Unipetrol showed the company achieved a model polyolefin margin of €317/tonne ($406/tonne) in July, the best figure since October 2007 when the margin was €343/tonne. In July last year, the figure stood at €242/tonne.

Unipetrol has also flagged up improving propylene and polypropylene (PP) second-quarter spreads. Unipetrol, and its parent company PKN Orlen of Poland, are due to report their second-quarter 2010 results on 31 August.

($1 = €0.78)

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By: Will Conroy
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