September IPEX shows small uptick on gains in Asia

07 September 2010 18:06  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS)--The ICIS Petrochemical Index (IPEX) for September showed a small uptick from August but remained below its level in July, as gains in Asia were countered by declines in Europe.

The September index rose 1.5% to 259.86 from the revised* August figure of 256.04.

The Asian component of the index rose by 3.3%, recouping much of last month’s loss. It was buoyed by double-digit percentage rises in the prices of propylene and polyethylene (PE) as a result of tight supply and production issues.

Prices of ethylene, benzene, styrene and the other polymers rose by 6-9%. Only butadiene and paraxylene (PX) showed declines.

In contrast, the European component of the index weakened by 0.7% on lower August monthly European contract settlements. The decline would have been greater but for stronger domestic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) prices, and a further 0.4% weakening of the US dollar versus the euro.

The US component of the index was virtually unchanged, with rises in propylene, PX and polypropylene (PP) prices offset by declines in benzene, methanol and polystyrene (PS).

Published at the beginning of each month, the IPEX provides an independent indicator of average change in world petrochemical prices.

Dating back to January 1993, historical ICIS prices for a basket of 12 essential petrochemical products in the US, western Europe and northeast Asia markets have been weighted by regional nameplate capacity to generate a monthly index value.

The IPEX product basket comprises ethylene, propylene, benzene, toluene, PX, styrene, methanol, butadiene, PVC, PE, PP and PS.

*The August IPEX has been revised from 256.75 to 256.04, following incorporation of the US and Asian July styrene contract settlements. It is also subject to further revision once the US July ethylene contract settles. This month’s index is also subject to revision once the US August ethylene and styrene contracts settle.

**As of July 2010, the index has been revised retrospectively to replace latest available contract prices at the time of publication that had previously been used in the data series with actual settled contract prices. This has had the effect of moving the derived IPEX from an estimated status to an actual status.

The revised historical IPEX data is available from ICIS on request
Click here for a full methodology of the revised IPEX
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By: Susan Royse
+44 20 8652 3214

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