Asia price falls help push global July IPEX lower

Nigel Davis

04-Aug-2015

IPEXLONDON (ICIS)–Steep price falls in Asia, an easing of prices for the major olefins and polyolefins in Europe and a lower propylene price in the US helped drive the global ICIS petrochemical index (IPEX) lower for July.

The global IPEX was down 2.6% month to month at 253.52 from a marginally revised June level.

A feature of the global petrochemical markets in July was the sharp drop in prices for the major products in Asia, led by ethylene but including all the petrochemicals and polymers comprising the regional IPEXs. The steepest price declines in the Asia market were for ethylene (-14.8%), butadiene (BD) (-10.5%) and toluene (-9.2%). The Asia regional index was down 6.1%.

Ethylene, propylene, polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) prices in Europe and Asia had been pushed higher in the second quarter largely on lack of olefins availability and, in Europe, because of the weak euro. The US propylene contract price fell in July by 8.8% and to its lowest level since May 2009 on good availability driven in turn by downstream PP outages and a shift by cracker operators to heavier feedstocks.

The monthly ethylene contract price in Europe rolled over in July but was down 1.8% in US dollar terms. The Europe propylene contract price was down 3.7% in dollar terms – 1.9% in euros.

The fall in prices for the primary olefins and polyolefins was offset by higher benzene and toluene prices in the US and Europe. The US July benzene contract price rose sharply following a steep decline in June. US toluene prices also increased. The July benzene contract price was agreed higher as expected following higher June benzene spot prices, gains in the US market and renewed downstream demand in Europe.

The July IPEX will be revised when July contract prices for the following commodities are agreed by market players: US ethylene, styrene, paraxylene (PX) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC); Asia styrene and Europe PX. US PX had not settled for June or July when the July IPEX was calculated. The basis for the IPEX (100) is January 1993.

Global IPEX July 2015

*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, PP 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

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