Global ICIS Petrochemical Index (IPEX) for April plunges to November 2003 level
Nigel Davis
06-May-2020
LONDON (ICIS)–The ICIS Petrochemical Index (IPEX) plunged in April as the impact of the falling oil price and coronavirus-driven demand destruction slammed the sector.
The global index stands at a level last seen in November 2003 and is just below that in January 2009.
IPEX | IPEX Value | March to April change |
Global | 149.49 | -17.90% |
US | 151.22 | -15.52% |
Northwest Europe | 197.64 | -19.81% |
Northeast Asia | 129.34 | -18.10% |
Lowest price decreases in April | ||
Commodity | Region | Month on month fall |
Polypropylene | US | -4.55% |
Polystyrene | Northwest Europe | -6.10% |
Polyvinyl Chloride | Northwest Europe | -6.13% |
Major price falls in October | ||
Commodity | Region | Month on month fall |
Benzene | Northwest Europe | -71.71% |
Benzene | Northeast Asia | -52.92% |
Toluene | Northeast Asia | -52.66% |
Each of the regional components of the global index fell sharply month on month as petrochemical and plastic prices fell across the board. The index charts the largely contract and average monthly price movements of a basket of the 12 major petrochemicals and plastics.
Aromatics prices fell steeply and quickly in April as the falling value of naphtha worked its way through the regional markets. Petrochemicals prices are impacted by the drop in crude oil and the negative market sentiment of oversupply as coronavirus lockdowns across large areas of the globe hit downstream and end-use product demand.
While there are some bright spots of increased demand for certain chemicals and plastics important for the protection of human health, the overarching price trend for petrochemicals and plastics is down due largely to oversupply.
Some of the polymers have been least affected by the lockdowns although in terms of price, the drops for products such as polypropylene in the US and polystyrene in Europe were still in the close to 5-6% range.
There were no price increases for products used to compile the IPEXs in April.
Contracts yet to settle for April are: US paraxylene, US polyethylene, and Asia paraxylene.
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.
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