Ethyl acetate prices jump €50/tonne on tight supplies

02 September 2010 17:16  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS)--European ethyl acetate prices have firmed by €50/tonne ($64/tonne) on the back of tight availability, buyers and sellers said on Thursday.

A planned outage from INEOS and SEKAB Biofuels & Chemical, as well as reduced imported volumes had resulted in tight supply for spot business in September, with prices assessed around €870-900/tonne, free delivered (FD), northwest Europe (NWE).

INEOS commenced its planned five week shutdown on 1 September at its 245,000 tonne/year unit at Hull, in the UK. However, prior to the outage, both crackers at the adjoining Grangemouth site were out of production, one planned and one unscheduled. This meant that reduced feedstock for ethyl acetate restricted the amount of stock piling the company had planned to do.

While contractual obligations would be met during the outage, spot opportunities were expected to be limited.

SEKAB’s plant in Domsjo, Sweden, was also scheduled to shut down mid-September for seven to ten days. The site has a nameplate capacity of 35,000 tonnes/year.

These outages, combined with reduced imported volumes from Asia and the US for September, were said to be contributing to the firmer prices and most suppliers were targeting €900/tonne FD NWE for the month.

“We’re not sure how long the tightness will remain – it could result in some sort of sales control later (in September),” one re-seller said.

However, most agreed that the firmer prices were more on the back of supply, as demand was still said to be relatively slow.

“Demand is good, not huge, but the availability is tight,” one producer said.

($1 = €0.78)

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By: Jane Massingham
+44 20 8652 3214

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