INTERACTIVE: Asia price falls drive October Global IPEX down 3%

LONDON (ICIS)–Falling prices in northeast Asia and western Europe drove the Global ICIS Petrochemical Index (IPEX) sharply lower in October. Here are the October IPEX values and details of the major commodity petrochemical and polymer contract and average spot price movements for the month.

IPEX	IPEX Value	September to October change
Global	276.25	-3.33%
US	276.95	-0.91%
Northwest Europe	317.19	-2.16%
Northeast Asia	259.91	-5.15%
Major price rises in October
Commodity	Region	Month on month rise
Methanol	US	2.41%
Methanol	Northeast Asia	1.70%
Polypropylene	Northeast Asia	1.13%
Major price falls in October
Commodity	Region	Month on month fall
Butadiene	Northeast Asia	-22.93%
Ethylene	Northeast Asia	-13.31%
Styrene	Northeast Asia	-8.14%

Northeast Asia butadiene and ethylene prices continued to fall sharply in October while styrene more than lost the gains made September.

Price rises globally for the month were hard to find.

Methanol was up 2.41% in North America and 1.70% in northeast Asia. Propylene was up in northeast Asia.

Northeast Asia’s spot ethylene prices plunged towards the end of the month to levels last seen in July 2017 due to a supply glut.

Asia spot butadiene prices were thought to have bottomed out later in the month after collapsing by nearly 40% over a two-month period. There was a clear knock-on knock-on impact on contract discussions in other markets.

October benzene, paraxylene and styrene prices were down in Europe.

The index values are subject to change as contract prices settle.

Global and regional IPEX data are available here
The ICIS Petrochemical Index methodology is available here

The ICIS petrochemical index tracks the movement of 12 major petrochemicals and polymers: ethylene, propylene, butadiene, benzene, toluene, paraxylene (PX), polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), styrene, polystyrene (PS), methanol and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) with the regional indexes weighted by capacity.