December IPEX reaches highest level in seven months

07 December 2010 16:22  [Source: ICIS news]

By Sheenal Khimasia

LONDON (ICIS)--The ICIS Petrochemical Index (IPEX) for December strengthened by nearly 4% to 292.53 from its revised* November figure of 281.67, returning to May 2010 levels.

Asia led the growth this month with a 6.4% increase in its index. It was buoyed by increases in most prices except ethylene which fell by 5.6% as a result of increasing ethylene supplies from the Middle East putting prices under pressure.

The US component strengthened by 1.5% primarily on rises in paraxylene (PX) and benzene. The European component edged up by nearly 1% as a result of mainly stronger aromatics prices but was held back by the stronger dollar against the euro.

PX prices were boosted by double-digit percentage increases in all three regions, most notably in Asia. PX prices have been buoyant as demand for purified terephthalic acid (PTA) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) has been strong. European markets have also been driven by rising Asian prices.

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 Asian 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, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS).

The November IPEX has been revised from 279.75 to 281.67, following incorporation of the US October ethylene and styrene and Asian October styrene contract settlements. This month’s index is also subject to revision once the US November 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 index 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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Author: Sheenal Khimasia

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