April IPEX extends upward trend for eighth month in a row

05 April 2011 15:38  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS)--The ICIS Petrochemical Index (IPEX) for April 2011 has increased to 351.82 after climbing for the eighth consecutive month. This month’s IPEX has improved by 4.0% on the revised* March 2011 figure of 338.28.

The rise in the index was fuelled by a surge in the value of the dollar-based IPEX European component which saw a monthly rise of 6.8%, aided by a 3.0% weakening of the dollar against the euro. The European component is just shy of its all-time high from August 2008.

The Asian component of the index rose by 3.8% and the US component by 1.9%. Across all regions, prices rose in 29 of the 36 basket products.

Butadiene prices saw the strongest increases, rising in all regions, with more than 10% increases experienced in both Europe and Asia. Supplies are tight globally because of the tendency for ethylene producers to crack lighter feedstocks reducing supplies of the butadiene co-product.

The US propylene price decreased by 6.4%, which was the largest fall seen in a basket item. US propylene prices pulled back because of tepid demand for polypropylene following price surges earlier in the year. However, propylene prices in both Asia and Europe saw gains of 8.5% and 10.4%, respectively.

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, paraxylene (PX), styrene, methanol, butadiene, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene.

The March IPEX has been revised from 336.84 to 338.28, following incorporation of the US February ethylene and styrene and Asian styrene contract settlements. This month’s index is also subject to revision once the US March styrene contract settles.

*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

By: Regan Hartnell
+44 20 8652 3214

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