US October ethylene contracts fall 2.1% on weaker spot prices

02 November 2012 19:45  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS)--US ethylene contracts for October fell by 2.1% on Friday, tracking weaker spot prices.

The settlement puts the October contract at 47.25 cents/lb ($1,042/tonne, €802/tonne), down by 1 cent/lb from September.

US ethylene contracts normally settle at the beginning of the month for the previous calendar month.

The decrease in October was largely attributed to falling spot prices in the first half of the month.

Ethylene spot prices in October averaged 55.453 cents/lb during the month, falling in the middle portion before rebounding slightly in the past week.

The October average spot price was 6.2% lower than September’s spot ethylene average price of 59.130 cents/lb.

The fall in spot prices was attributed to softer demand, a market participant said, adding that the polymer market in the US is not “doing so great”.

The fall was stemmed by tighter supply in the second half of the month, amid several unexpected cracker outages.

($1 = €0.77)

By: John Dietrich
713-525-2600

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