US LDPE margins fall 0.3% on higher feedstock costs

HOUSTON (ICIS)–US polyethylene (PE) margins for low density polyethylene (LDPE) fell by 0.3% following an increase in feedstock ethane costs, the ICIS margin report showed on Monday.

Integrated domestic PE margins were assessed at 73.52 cents/lb ($1,621/tonne) for LDPE and 64.20 cents/lb for high density polyethylene (HDPE) blow moulding in the week that ended on 12 September.

That represents a 0.21 cents/lb decrease on average for LDPE and a 0.22 cents/lb decrease for HDPE, from a week earlier, using ethane as a feedstock.

Ethane costs for the week ending on 12 September rose by 1.8%. Co-product credits fell by 1.2%.

Co-product credits are the price at which products such as propylene, butadiene (BD) and benzene, which are made along with ethylene in the cracking process, can be sold.