South Korea’s YNCC settles July BD contract up by $327/tonne

01 July 2011 04:22  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--South Korea’s Yeochun NCC (YNCC) has settled its butadiene (BD) contract price for July at $3,873/tonne (€2,672/tonne), up by $327/tonne from its contract price in June, a company source said on Friday.

The contract price for BD in June was at $3,546/tonne on a pipeline DEL (delivered) basis.

The supply of BD in Asia is tighter than expected because of the recent surge in demand in the US where supply is short.

Cracker operators in the US have opted to take advantage of the country’s abundant ethane gas, but this yields less BD compared with naphtha.

South Korean olefins producers have been exporting about 20,000 tonnes of BD to the US since May because of its higher price compared with Asia, industry sources said.

An Asian parcel of 5,000 tonnes that was shipped to the US in June was sold at $4,000/tonne FOB (free on board) South Korea, at least $100/tonne higher than the price in the Asian market, traders said.

Spot prices of BD were at $3,950-4,000/tonne CFR (cost & freight) northeast (NE) Asia in the week ending 24 June, up by $300/tonne since the end of May, ICIS data showed.

($1 = €0.69)

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By: Helen Yan
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