FocusAsia acetone to hit fresh highs on tight supply, stable demand

21 September 2011 05:26  [Source: ICIS news]

By Liu Xin

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Asian acetone spot prices hit record highs and are likely to continue rising on the back of tight supply and steady demand from the downstream solvents sector, market sources said on Wednesday.

Acetone prices have gained over 10% from mid-July levels to the latest assessment of $1,180-1,220/tonne (€861-891/tonne) CFR (cost and freight) China on 16 September, according to ICIS data.

“We expect acetone prices to remain firm given prevailing tight supply,” a northeast Asian trader said.

An expected demand pick-up from the downstream solvents sector in October may fuel further price gains in the weeks ahead, he added.

“The persistently low inventories in the major China market is the key driver of the price increase,”  said another northeast Asian trader.

Inventories in eastern China have been lingering at 20,000-30,000 tonnes in the past few months, while a normal stock level is estimated to be around 50,000-60,000 tonnes, sources said.

“Cargoes have been snapped up by end-users upon arrival, leaving us limited inventories,” an eastern China-based trader said.

Acetone imports in China in May and June were down 41.6% and 16% year on year, respectively, according to data from the China Customs. A dearth of deep-sea cargoes was the major reason behind the sharp declines in import volumes, sources said.

Meanwhile, a buying spree of deep-sea material has been going on since the start of September, with over 10,000 tonnes heard to have changed hands every week.

But the prevailing tight supply is not expected to ease in the near term because of the long voyage time of deep-sea cargoes to get to Asia, and amid the outages and impending shutdowns at regional phenol-acetone facilities.

Sinopec Gaoqiao Petrochemical’s 200,000 tonne/year phenol/acetone plant in Caojing, Shanghai, remained off line following a pipeline blast at its feedstock supplier Shanghai SECCO Petrochemical late on 8 September.

There was talk that Gaoqiao’s phenol/acetone facility will be kept idle until after the National Day holidays in China in early October, but this could not be confirmed.

Meanwhile, Japan's Mitsui Chemicals plans to shut its phenol-acetone plant at Jurong Island, Singapore, on 22 September for a scheduled annual maintenance, a company source said. The plant, which has a nameplate capacity of 300,000 tonnes/year of phenol and 180,000 tonnes/year of acetone, will remain off line until 25 October.

($1 = €0.73)

Read John Richardson and Malini Hariharan’s blog – Asian Chemical Connections

By: Liu Xin
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