Corrected: Petrochemical prices plunge on crude, IPEX down 6.8%

Correction: The following ICIS article dated 04 December 2014 has been republished with the corrected headline: “Petrochemical prices plunge on crude, IPEX down 6.8%” instead of “Petrochemical prices plunge on crude, IPEX down 7.3%”. Please also read in the second paragraph… The monthly global ICIS petrochemical index (IPEX), charting price settlements for November contracts, dropped by 6.8%… instead of… dropped by 7.3%… A corrected story follows.

LONDON (ICIS)–Petrochemical prices for November plunged in reaction to the sharp fall in crude oil prices, with the impact currently most notable in northeast Asia and Europe, petrochemical index data from ICIS showed this week.

The monthly global ICIS petrochemical index (IPEX), charting price settlements for November contracts, dropped by 6.8% from a revised month earlier figure with the northeast Asia sub-index falling 7.6% and the indexes for Europe and the US down 6.7% and 5.6% respectively.

Olefins and aromatics prices fell sharply with polyolefins prices dropping to a lesser extent.

The IPEX captures price data for 12 key petrochemicals on a regional and a global basis. It is subject to revision as monthly contracts settle which they have not done yet fully for November for US ethylene, styrene and PVC and for Asia paraxylene and styrene.

The US November ethylene contract price is likely to fall by 9% an initial settlement indicated on 3 December.

Oil prices have continued to fall but the IPEX numbers do not yet reflect the steep drop after the decision by OPEC on 28 November not to cut back on production.

Petrochemical prices in all regions follow crude oil but are also influenced by non-oil feedstock prices as well as supply/demand factors and market sentiment.

Ethylene was down $200/tonne in northeast Asia between October and November with propylene and butadiene prices also much lower. Benzene was down $154/tonne.

The November ethylene monthly contract price in Europe was agreed down €90/tonne with the other major olefins down by similar proportions. Europe benzene was agreed down €110/tonne at €935/tonne.

The Europe IPEX is calculated based on prices in US dollars so will reflect the month-to-month change in the $/€ exchange rate.

In the US, propylene was down $198/tonne and benzene down $11/tonne between October and November. Paraxylene was down $209/tonne.

Published at the beginning of each month, the IPEX provides an independent indicator of average change in world petrochemical prices.

The IPEX product basket of 12 essential petrochemical products comprises ethylene, propylene, BD, benzene, toluene, PX, styrene, methanol, PVC, PE, polypropylene and polystyrene (PS).

Dating back to January 1993, historical ICIS prices for these products in the US, western Europe and northeast Asian markets have been weighted by regional nameplate capacity to generate the monthly index value.

Download global and regional ICIS IPEX data here.

View the full IPEX methodology.