This document is intended to provide methodology support for customers receiving the ICIS Weekly Margin – PE Asia report.

THE BUSINESS MODEL

The diagram below shows the main method of making PE from naphtha, a product mainly derived from crude oil. Naphtha with steam is fed into the cracker unit where ethylene and other co-products (propylene, butadiene and benzene) are made. The ethylene from the cracker unit is then further processed (polymerised) in the PE plant to make the PE pellets for sale.

THE MARGIN CALCULATION

• Margin measure provides assessment of the ex-works cash margin obtained for the product over raw material costs and key variable manufacturing costs, such as power, steam, catalysts and chemicals. This measure can also be termed as a variable margin, contribution or benefit.
• It represents a cash margin measure available for supporting the direct and allocated fixed manufacturing costs, working capital, taxes, royalties, corporate costs, debt service costs, capital costs and owner’s returns from the business.
• This margin measure provides simple signals on the direction of business margins, as dictated by the environment alone, thus informing market positioning by sellers, buyers and traders.
• ICIS chooses not to model beyond raw material costs and key variable manufacturing costs as this ceases to be generic to the integrated industry and highly specific to individual business operations, their site structure, location, ownership and financial structures. Such detail would not fairly reflect or be applicable in a wider industry context. It may also be more subjective, open to fair challenges and not feasible to reference in commercial discussions.
• Plant manufacturing and feedstock yield model data have been provided by Linde Engineering, a division of Linde AG. Linde Engineering (www.linde-engineering.com) is a leading international chemical plant designer, process engineering, procurement and construction contractor. It has extensive experience in ethylene and PE plant design.
• The process model is generic and not referenced to any individual operation, so that the contribution measure is only indicative. It can be most valuably referenced in index and step change terms as opposed to absolute value terms.
• Naphtha feedstock has been chosen as this represents the most commonly used feedstock for ethylene manufacture in both northeast and southeast Asia. As such, the cost model is broadly applicable to the majority of the Asian commodity PE business.
• Ex-works product price assessments are linked to ICIS pricing quotations for large volume commodity products with netbacks assessed using typical logistic cost assessments.
• The PE grades referenced in the ICIS PE Asian Margin report are low density polyethylene (LDPE) film grade and high density polyethylene (HDPE) injection moulding grade. These generally represent large-volume commodity grades in the PE market. The ICIS spot Hong Kong quote is referenced as this is broadly representative of the Asian market.

Below is a detailed calculation of how the integrated and standalone margins are calculated. The figures refer to averages for film-grade LDPE for 2011; the calculation for injection-grade HDPE is similar. Figures indicated in red are those found in the tables of the margin report; others relate to underlying assumptions of the model.

LDPE margin calculation ($/tonne) – averaged for 2011

Integrated margin
LDPE film-grade price	1,559
Logistics / bagging & pelletising costs	(37)
Net selling price		1,522
Purchase feedstock (naphtha)1	(3,139)
Co-product sales/tonne of LDPE produced2,3	2,245
Variable cost of PE unit	(163)
		(1,057)
Integrated margin		465
Standalone margin
LDPE film-grade price		1,559
Logistics / bagging & pelletising costs		(37)
Net selling price			1,522
Ethylene spot price (CFR NEA)	(1,198)
Freight/terminalling saving for not exporting	105
Net ethylene price paid	(1093)
/tonne LDPE produced3, ie Purchase feedstock (ethylene)		(1,103)
Co-product sales/tonne of LDPE produced		-
Variable cost of PE unit4		(163)
			(1,266)
Standalone Margin			256

¹The model assumes 3.278 tonnes of naphtha are required to produce 1 tonne of ethylene and 1.01 tonnes of ethylene are required to produce 1 tonne of LDPE. The average net naphtha price (including freight costs) for 2011 was $948/tonne.

²Co-product sales include credits for propylene, butadiene, raffinate-1, benzene, pygas and a fuel export balance.

³The model assumes 1.01 tonnes of ethylene are required to produce 1 tonne of LDPE.

⁴Includes power and catalysts/chemicals.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NON-INTEGRATED AND INTEGRATED

• Non-integrated or standalone: market participant involved with PE production only. The business model is to buy ethylene, convert it into PE and sell the PE. Our margin model assumption is that the plants are co-located and that the ethylene is transferred at an FOB value. This business model is only applicable to a minority of manufacturing facilities in Asia.
• Integrated: market participant involved with both ethylene and PE production. The business model is to buy naphtha feedstock, process it into ethylene and cracker co-products, convert the ethylene into PE, and sell both the PE and cracker co-products. This business model is applicable to the majority of manufacturing facilities in Asia.

WHY INTEGRATED ANALYSIS

• Integrated analysis provides the key reason for being (or ‘raison d’être’) in the commodity PE business.
• Most Asian PE plants (more than 90% by capacity) are integrated back to cracker sources of ethylene. This may be co-located and/or connected by pipeline and with common equity ownership across both assets in the supply chain, that is, the economic boundaries for the majority of the industry producers are bigger than a standalone polymer unit.
• The margin is therefore measured across the supply chain from cracker feedstock (naphtha) through to PE and cracker co-products.
• This analysis demonstrates the volatility of the business and the influence of price floors that can lead to an uneconomic integrated margin, and generally forcing a reduction in supply.
• In contrast, a non-integrated or standalone analysis that considers the polymer unit in isolation may be useful for understanding marginal opportunities where optimisation processes could result in ethylene being preferentially used for other ethylene derivative products. However, analysis of non-integrated historical data does show inadequate margins to justify fresh business investment to meet growing market demands.

MODEL YIELD PATTERN AND CALCULATION

Plant manufacturing data relates to the variable cost components of the chemical unit operations. Yield pattern data relates to the overall material balance of the cracker unit, for example for 1 tonne of ethylene produced, a cracker requires 3.2 tonnes of naphtha feedstock, and will produce co-products (including, but not limited to propylene, butadiene and benzene) of 2.2 tonnes in addition to the 1 tonne of ethylene. The plant manufacturing and feedstock yield model data have been provided by Linde Engineering, a division of Linde AG.

The exact yield pattern of the cracker used cannot be published in an unrestricted document such as this methodology statement. However, for PE Asia Margin report subscribers with a specific requirement to see this data, it can be shared on a case-by-case basis.

Please contact the Global Customer Support Centre if this data is required.

ASSESSMENT INPUTS

The following pricing inputs are used to generate the full content of the ICIS Weekly Margin –PE Asia report.

NORTHEAST ASIA

• Polyethylene LDPE (film) in Asia Pacific Spot Hong Kong
• Polyethylene HDPE (injection) in Asia Pacific Spot Hong Kong
• Naphtha in Asia Pacific Spot CFR Japan (ICIS pricing, Friday assessment) ($/tonne)
• Ethylene in Asia Pacific Spot CFR NE Asia (ICIS pricing, weekly average) ($/tonne)
• Propylene in Asia Pacific Spot CFR NE Asia (ICIS pricing, weekly average) ($/tonne)
• Propylene in Asia Pacific Spot CFR China Main Port (ICIS pricing, weekly average) ($/tonne)
• Butadiene in Asia Pacific Spot CFR NE Asia (ICIS pricing, weekly average) ($/tonne)
• Benzene in Asia Pacific Spot CFR NE Asia (ICIS pricing, Friday assessment) ($/tonne)
• Benzene in Asia Pacific Spot FOB Korea (ICIS pricing, Friday assessment) ($/tonne)
• Toluene in Asia Pacific Spot CFR NE Asia (ICIS pricing, Friday assessment) ($/tonne)
• Xylene (Solvent Grade) in Asia Pacific Spot FOB Korea (ICIS pricing, Friday assessment) ($/tonne)
• High Sulphur Fuel Oil mixed/cracked 180 cst FOB Singapore Spot (C1 Energy, weekly average) [from 29 August 2011; previously Fuel Oil 180 cst FOB Singapore Spot (Reuters, weekly average)] ($/tonne)

SOUTHEAST ASIA

• Polyethylene LDPE (film) in Asia Pacific Spot Hong Kong
• Polyethylene HDPE (injection) in Asia Pacific Spot Hong Kong
• Naphtha in Asia Pacific Spot FOB Singapore (ICIS pricing, Friday assessment) ($/bbl)
• Naphtha in Asia Pacific Spot FOB Singapore (ICIS pricing, weekly average) ($/bbl)
• Ethylene in Asia Pacific Spot CFR SE Asia (ICIS pricing, weekly average) ($/tonne)
• Propylene in Asia Pacific Spot CFR SE Asia (ICIS pricing, weekly average) ($/tonne)
• Butadiene in Asia Pacific Spot CFR SE Asia (ICIS pricing, weekly average) ($/tonne)
• Benzene in Asia Pacific Spot FOB SE Asia (ICIS pricing, Friday assessment) ($/tonne)
• Toluene in Asia Pacific Spot CFR SE Asia (ICIS pricing, Friday assessment) ($/tonne)
• High Sulphur Fuel Oil mixed/cracked 180 cst FOB Singapore Spot (C1 Energy, weekly average) [from 29 August 2011; previously Fuel Oil 180 cst FOB Singapore Spot (Reuters, weekly average)] ($/tonne)
• Gasoline 95 Unleaded FOB Singapore Spot (C1 Energy, weekly average) [from 29 August 2011; previously Gasoline 95 Unleaded FOB Singapore Cargo Spot (Reuters, weekly average)] ($/bbl)

The methodology associated with each ICIS pricing individual pricing quotation referenced above can be found in the free access methodology area of www.icispricing.com.

A key objective of the calculation procedure is to provide a weekly summary that is most strongly aligned to the reported market price positions on the date of publication.

Where price quotations are not available for individual days or weeks due to public holidays, then prior day or week data is carried forward for the specific purpose of populating the model and preventing model inconsistency. This form of data interpolation is inferring some limited data points that may not be market derived, and customers should be aware of this assumption.

All data in the ICIS Weekly Margin – PE Asia report is denominated in US dollars.

SHORT-TERM VIEWS:

These provide ethylene and PE margins based on the ICIS northeast Asian naphtha cracker model.

LONGER RANGE VIEWS:

PE MARGINS

The ICIS Weekly – PE Asia report will provide a comparative data chart for LDPE film and HDPE injection on alternate weeks. The ethylene and PE margins are based on the ICIS northeast Asian naphtha cracker model.

SOUTHEAST ASIAN MARGINS VERSUS NORTHEAST ASIAN MARGINS

This provides a weekly comparison of the calculated integrated PE spot margin for southeast Asian operators minus the calculated integrated PE spot margin for northeast Asian operators. When this differential provides a positive numerical output, this implies that integrated PE spot margins are higher for southeast Asian operators than for northeast Asian operators. Similarly, when this differential provides a negative numerical output, this implies that integrated PE spot margins are higher for northeast Asian operators than for southeast Asian operators. The ICIS Weekly – PE Asia report will provide a comparative data chart for LDPE film and HDPE injection on alternate weeks.

READING THE CHARTS

In the short-term charts and longer range margin view, the integrated margin is derived by reading the top of the wedge, the sum of the ethylene margin per tonne of PE (yellow) and the standalone PE margin (blue). Where the standalone margin is a loss (red), the integrated margin is read as the top of the yellow wedge or, where there is no yellow wedge, the bottom of the red.

PUBLICATION FREQUENCY

The ICIS Weekly Margin – PE Asia report is produced on a Friday at the close of business in Asia and distributed to customers on the following Monday, subject to schedule planning. When the Monday is a public holiday in the UK, the report is distributed on the Tuesday. The report is not published on some public holidays. Holiday dates and days of publication may be subject to revision.

For information on ICIS' full portfolio of margin reports, visit http://www.icis.com/chemicals/channel-info-about/margin-reports/